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

  

PARNASSIA. Grass-of-Parnassus. [Saxifragaceae]

Only one species of Parnassia is recorded in Britain, the native Grass-of-Parnassus (P. palustris).

Only one British miner is recorded on Parnassia.

A key to the European miners recorded on Parnassia is provided in Bladmineerders van Europa.

Key for the identification of the known mines of British
insects (Diptera and non-Diptera) recorded on Parnassia
1 > Leaf-miner: Initially mines a leaf. The upper surface mine is usually adjacent to the leaf margin and gently sinuous with irregularly scattered frass (as shown, in vacated mines). Occasionally the mines may widen to form small blotches. After the leaf is mined the larva feeds, in a web, on the rosette leaves and stem. This web is made at the base of the plant, amongst the leaf litter and moss. This is the second record of this species since the mid-nineteenth in the Britain. The larva previously had not been found in the British Isles (Beavan, S.D., Heckford, R.J., Prescott, T., Watson, D. & Young, M.R. (2015), Kessleria fasciapennella (Stainton, 1849) (Lepidoptera:Yponomeutidae): discovery of the larva in Scotland and consideration of prior Scottish records of the adult, Entomologist’s Gazette 67: 23–46) (British Leafminers).

On Parnassia palustris in Britain and elsewhere. Widespread in continental Europe.
Kessleria fasciapennella (Stainton, 1849) [Lepidoptera: Yponomeutidae].

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