The leaf and stem mines of British flies and other insects
 

(Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera)

by Brian Pitkin, Willem Ellis, Colin Plant and Rob Edmunds

 

Scaptomyza griseola (Zetterstedt, 1847)
[Diptera: Drosophilidae]


Drosophila griseola Zetterstedt, 1847. Dipt. Scand. 5: 2562.
Scaptomyza griseola (Zetterstedt, 1847).


Leaf-miner: Narrow corridor, leading to a large blotch. The blotch has lower- and upper-surface parts, and is full depth where these overlap. Pupation external (Robbins, 1991a).

Larva: The larvae of flies 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.

Watch a video of a scaptomyzid fly larva on Arabidopsis on YouTube by mash92587.

Puparium: The puparia of flies are 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).

Comments: Chandler (1978) did not indicate whether his host record was British or Foreign and is therefore included under 'Hosts in Britain' and 'Hosts elsewhere'.

Hosts in Great Britain and Ireland:

Brassicaceae        
? Brassica       Robbins (1991a)

? Sisymbrium

      Pitkin & Plant
? Sisymbrium       Robbins (1991a)
Caryophyllaceae        
? Stellaria       Chandler, 1978: 225
Stellaria       Reared adult in BMNH
Potomogetonaceae        
Potamogeton       Bland, 1992

Hosts elsewhere:

Caryophyllaceae        
? Stellaria       Chandler, 1978: 225

Time of year - mines: July.

Time of year - adults: Appears to have at least two generations a year. Most abundant in May and October.

Distribution in Great Britain and Ireland: Widespread from Caithness in the north to Kent in the south-east. Inner Hebrides (Isle of Coll) (Bland, 1992); Anglesey, Breconshire, Cambridgeshire, Cardiganshire, Glamorgan, Monmouthshire, North Somerset Pembrokeshire, South Aberdeenshire, South-west Yorkshire, Surrey and Westmorland (NBN Atlas).

Distribution elsewhere: Widespread in continental Europe (Bächli and Roche Pite, 1984) including Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, French mainland, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Norwegian mainland, Poland, Romania, Russia - North and Northwest, Slovakia, Sweden and The Netherlands (Bächli, 2004 in Fauna Europaea).

NBN Atlas links to known host species:

Host species unknown

British and Irish Parasitoids in Britain and elsewhere: Currently unknown.



External links: Search the internet:
Biodiversity Heritage Library
Bladmineerders van Europa
British leafminers
Encyclopedia of Life
Fauna Europaea
NBN Atlas
NHM UK Checklist
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