Note: Diptera larvae may live in a corridor mine, a corridor-blotch mine, or a blotch mine, but never in a case, a rolled or folded leaf, a tentiform mine or sandwiched between two more or less circular leaf sections in later instars. Pupation never in a cocoon. All mining Diptera larvae are leg-less maggots without a head capsule (see examples). They never have thoracic or abdominal legs. They do not have chewing mouthparts, although they do have a characteristic cephalo-pharyngeal skeleton (see examples), usually visible internally through the body wall. The larvae lie on their sides within the mine and use their pick-like mouthparts to feed on plant tissue. In some corridor miners frass may lie in two rows on alternate sides of the mine. In order to vacate the mine the fully grown larva cuts an exit slit, which is usually semi-circular (see Liriomyza huidobrensis video). The pupa is formed within the hardened last larval skin or puparium and as a result sheaths enclosing head appendages, wings and legs are not visible externally (see examples).

1 > Leaf-miner: Blotch mine. Several larvae feeding in a line and advancing up the leaf blade together.

Mine of Paralleloma paridis on Paris quadrifolia Image: Brian Pitkin

On Paris and possibly Polygonatum (record ambiguous) in Britain. On Convallaria, Maianthemum, Paris, Plantathera and Polygonatum eslewhere. Widespread in Britain and continental Europe. Also recorded from the Nearctic region

Parallelomma paridis (Hering, 1923) [Diptera: Scathophagidae]