Taraxacum dandelion
(For a dichotomous table for galls on Taraxacum by Hans Roskam click here)
Dichotomous table for leafminers
1a mine full depth; larva with chitinised head: Orthochaetes setiger
1b mine upper- or lower-surface; larva a maggot => 2
1c galls, etc. => Tables for all parasites per species
Dichotomous table for leafminers
1a mine full depth; larva with chitinised head: Orthochaetes setiger
1b mine upper- or lower-surface; larva a maggot => 2
1c galls, etc. => Tables for all parasites per species
2a broad, almost blotchy corridor with secondary feeding lines: Trypeta immaculata
2b no secondary feeding lines apparent => 3
3a blotch < 1 cm, lower-surface, usually several in a leaf; a red wart from above: Cystiphora taraxaci
3b mine different (longer, larger, not like a red wart) => 4
4a mine associated with the midrib => 5
4b mine independent of the midrib => 10
5a larva in the midrib, that is galled and swollen (a gall, rather than a mine): Phytomyza wahlgreni
5b midrib not galled => 6
6a a pinnately branched corridor, the main axis overlying the midrib; pupation outside the mine; frass in fresh mines well visible, in strings; larva: cephalic skeleton of the Phytomyzinae-type: Liriomyza strigata
6b larva lives in the midrib, making from there short excursions into the lamina; these corridors almost without frass; puparium, and most of the frass, in the very base of the hollow midrib; larva: cephalic skeleton of the Agromyzinae-type: Ophiomyia-soorten** => 7
7a full grown (3rd instar) larva: mandible with 1 tooth (beware: they alternate): Ophiomyia pinguis
7b mandible with 2 teeth => 8
8a rear spiraculum with 8-9 papillae: Ophiomyia cunctata
8b rear spiraculum with ≥10 papillae => 9
9a larva: front spiraculum erect, spine-like, wth ca. 14 papillae: Ophiomyia pulicaria
9b front spiraculum broad, bent, with ca. 7 papillae: Ophiomyia beckeri
10a more or less a blotch: Liriomyza taraxaci
10b more or less a corridor => 11
11a puparium in the mine, in a, usually lower-surface, pupal chamber; corridor not unusually long => 12
11b pupation outside the mine; mine with an unusually long under-surface corridor => 13
12a species of cultivated situations: Chromatomyia cf. syngenesiae
12b species of undisturbed habitats: Chromatomyia farfarella
13a sides of of the upper-surface part of the corridor very irregularly eaten out; larva with a frontal appendage; rear spiraculum with ca. 30 papillae: Phytomyza marginella
13b sides of the upper-surface part of the corridor fairly smooth; no frontal appendage; rear spiraculum with ca. 20 papillae: Phytomyza taraxaci
**In several European countries O. nasuta has been recorded. The larva of this species is not known; the biology, as far as known, seems similar to the other Ophiomyia‘s that are keyed out here.
Not included in the key: Liriomyza trifolii; Ophiomyia maura.