Mine of Phytomyza plantaginis on Plantago lanceolata Image: Willem Ellis (Bladmineerders van Europa)

Leaf-mine: A narrow, whitish linear mine, normally in the leaf but more rarely also in the stem. Pupation at end of mine, with the anterior spiracles projecting through the epidermis (Spencer, 1972: 84).

Strikingly narrow corridor, upper-surface or lower-surface, often also alternating. Frass in comparatively large, very widely spaced grains. Generally the corridor is so narrow that the frass grains seems to lay in a single row. Pupation within the mine, sometimes in the petiole. The black anterior spiracles of the puparium penetrate the epidermis (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Larva: The larva is described by de Meijere (1926), Sasakawa (1961) and illustrated in Bladmineerders van Europa; posterior spiracles each with about 12 bulbs.

Puparium: Whitish (Spencer, 1972: 84). The puparium is illustrated in Bladmineerders van Europa.

Hosts in Britain:

Hosts elsewhere:

Time of year - mines: June-November.

Time of year - adults: Unknown.

Distribution in Great Britain and Ireland: Common and widespread throughout Britain (Spencer, 1972: 84) including Inner Hebrides (Isle of Coll) (Bland, 1992), Rum (Bland, in Whiteley, 1994), Warwickshire (Keresley) (Robbins, 1991: 105); Cambridgeshire, Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire, East Kent, East Sussex, North Somerset, Pembrokeshire, South Wiltshire, Stafford, Surrey and West Kent (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) and the Channel Is. (Martinez in Fauna Europaea).

Also recorded in Ireland (Spencer, 1972: 84).

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: Cosmopolitan. Widespread in continental Europe, including Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden (Spencer, 1976: 469), Germany, Canary Islands (Mines in BMNH), The Netherlands (Bladmineerders van Europa), Belgium (Scheirs et al., 1994; van Frankenhuyzen, Houtman and Kabos, 1982), Germany (Spencer, 1976: 469), Azores, Belarus, Czech Republic, Estonia, European Turkey, French mainland, Hungary, Italian mainland, Latvia, Lithuania, Republic of Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spanish mainland, Switzerland and Yugoslavia (Martinez in Fauna Europaea).

Range extending east to the Kirghiz and Uzbek Republics of the [former] U.S.S.R. (Spencer, 1976: 469).

Also recorded in Japan, Australia, Canada, the U.S.A. (Spencer, 1976: 469) and New Zealand, where it has probably been introduced and appears to be parthenogenetic (Spencer, 1990: 212).

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

Parasitoids in Britain and elsewhere: