Plant Parasites of Europe

leafminers, galls and fungi

Ballota

Ballota black horehound

(For a dichotomous table for galls on Ballota by Hans Roskam click here)

Dichotomous table for leafminers

1a mine full depth; larva with chitinised head => 2

1b mine upper- or lower-surface; larva a maggot => 4

1c fleck mine => 9

1d galls, etc => Tables for all parasites per species

2a at the start of the mine a shining black drop of dried secretion: Trachys pumilus

2b no such drop => 3

3a mine strongly contracted: Stephensia calpella

3b mine flat: Dibolia cynoglossi, depressiuscula

4a corridor from start to end, may form a secondary blotch => 5

4b narrow, hardly widening, corridor, abruptly followed (and often overrun) by a large primary blotch => 7

4c mine inadequately described (“a blotch”); species from southern Europe: Amauromyza balcanica

5a the middle part of the corridor forms a distinct secondary blotch: Phytomyza salviae

5b nowhere does the corridor form a secondary blotch => 6

6a corridor pinnately branched, its main branch overlying the midrib; frass in strings; pupation outside the mine: Liriomyza strrigata

6b corridor not pinnate, not associated with the midrib; frass in discrete granules; pupation in the mine in a, usually lower-surface, pupal chamber: Chromatomyia horticola

7a frass in the corridor part in a broad, green central line, with very fine black granules at either side: Amauromyza labiatarum

7b frass in black grains or thread fragments along the corridor wal => 8

8a in the entire corridor the frass in clear thread fragments, neatly alternating along the sides: Amauromyza lamii

8b frass in the corridor in untidy thread fragments, towards the end mostly in grains: Amauromyza morionella

9a rear end of the case bent downwards: Coleophora ballotella

9b not so => 10

10a case conspicuously laterally compressed, especially near the end: Coleophora lineolea

10b case hardly compressed: Coleophora ochripennella

Not included in the key: Amauromyza leonuri; Coleophora pennella; Dibolia maura.

Tables for all parasites per species

Last modified 3.x.2021