THESIUM. Bastard-toadflax. [Santalaceae]

Two species of Thesium are recorded in Britain. These include the native Bastard-toadflax (T. humifusum).

No Diptera miners are recorded on Thesium in Britain.

One non-Diptera leaf-miner is recorded on Thesium in Britain and elsewhere (see below).

Key for the identification of the mines of British
non-Diptera recorded on Thesium

Note: The larvae of mining Coleoptera, Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera may live in a corridor mine, a corridor-blotch mine, a blotch mine, a case, a rolled or folded leaf, a tentiform mine or sandwiched between two more or less circular leaf sections in later instars. Larva may pupate in a silk cocoon. The larva may have at least six legs (although they may be reduced or absent), a head capsule and chewing mouthparts with opposable mandibles (see video of a gracillarid larva feeding). Larvae of Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera usually also have abdominal legs (see examples). Frass, if present, never in two rows. Unless feeding externally from within a case the larva usually vacates the mine by chewing an exit hole. Pupa with visible head appendages, wings and legs which lie in sheaths (see examples).

1 > Small, full depth, irregular corridor mine. Older larvae live free on the plant (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Recorded on Thesium in Britain and elsewhere. Britain including East Sussex. Widespread in continental Europe.

Epermenia insecurella (Stainton, 1854) [Lepidoptera: Epermeniidae]