Leaf-mine: May be several mines to a leaf, which are initially blackish, short and linear. A blotch is later formed. Pupation external, normally on lower surface (Spencer, 1976: 427).

The mine begins as a narrow, sometime stellate, strikingly dark corridor that slowly widens into an upper-surface blotch. Frass in pearl strings. Pupation within the mine, in a lower-surface pupal chamber; the anterior spiracula penetrate the epidemis (Hering, 1957; Spencer, 1976a; Stubbs, 2000a; Welch, 2000a). (Stubbs [2000a] describes the pupal chamber as upper-surface) (Bladmineerders van Europa).

May be several mines to a leaf, which are initially blackish (as shown), short and linear. A blotch is later formed (British leafminers).

Larva: Details unknown.

Puparium: Greyish-brown; posterior spiracles each with an ellipse of some 20 bulbs (Spencer, 1976: 427). The puparium is illustrated in Bladmineerders van Europa and British leafminers.

Phytomyza hellebori puparium Image: Willem Ellis (Bladmineerders van Europa)

Adult: The adult fly is illustrated in British leafminers.

Hosts in Britain:

Hosts elsewhere:

Time of year - mines: Autumn to Spring.

Time of year - adults: Unknown.

Distribution in Great Britain and Ireland: Southern Counties and East Anglia. Recorded new to Britain by Stubbs, 2000: 33-35). E. Northants, Huntingdonshire and Cambridge (Welch, 2000: 163-166), Surrey (Riddlesdown and Selsdon) (pers. observation) and Hampshire (Fleet and Winchfield) (British leafminers); North Essex, South Essex and Surrey (NBN Gateway - N.B. includes Watsonian Vice Counties having publicly available records that fall within or overlap the vice county border at 10km resolution or better i.e. a record for a vice county may relate to an adjacent vice county - for included datasets see NBN Grid map below).

NBN Grid map: Note that not all datasets on the NBN Gateway may be available on the map below. If you are an NBN Gateway registered user you can request access for missing datasets via the link 'Open interactive map in new window' below.

Distribution elsewhere: Widespread in continental Europe including Finland and Corsica (Spencer, 1976: 437), The Netherlands, Germany (Bladmineerders van Europa; Spencer, 1976: 570), French mainland and Italian mainland (Martinez in Fauna Europaea).

NBN interactive distribution map(s) of known host species in Great Britain and Ireland and elsewhere:

Parasitoids in Britain and elsewhere: Unknown.