Cerastium mouse-ear chickweed
(For a dichotomous table for galls on Cerastium by Hans Roskam click here)
Dichotomous table for leafminers
1a fleck mine => 2
1b corridor or blotch => 7
1c galls, etc. => Tables for all parasites per species
Dichotomous table for leafminers
1a fleck mine => 2
1b corridor or blotch => 7
1c galls, etc. => Tables for all parasites per species
2a larva mines from a silken tube that is fixed to the plant: Scythris siccella
2b larva mines from a portable case => 3
3a hole in the mine not neatly round; case helicoidal: Apterona helicoidella
3b hole precisely round; larva in a tubular case => 4
4a case with a dorsal keel that soon (less than halfway the end) splits into two parallel keels: Coleophora lithargyrinella
4b dorsal keel, if at all present, not cleft => 5
5a case with c. 5 dark length lines: Coleophora nubivagella
5b no ligth lines => 6
6a case c. 6 mm; sharp bend just behind the mouth, mouth angle therefore 30°: Coleophora chalcogrammella
6b case c. 8 mm; case straight, mouth angle 45°: Coleophora solitariella
7a larva with chitinised head => 8
7b larva a maggot; mine may occupy the entire leaf; larva remains in the mine => 13
8a larva without feet, remains in the mine until close to pupation; frass, as far as present, in a central line: Orthochaetes insignis
8b larva, with abdominal and thoracic feet, soon leaves the mine and continues feeding between spun leaves; fras not in a central line => 9
9a silk is deposited within the mine, causing it to pucker => 10
9b no silk, mine remains completely flat => 12
10a larva: pinacula colourless (the bases of the setae themselves are black) : Cnephasia incertana
10b pinacula black => 11
11a larva: behind/below the anus a chitinous comb: Cnephasia asseclana
11b anal comb absent: Cnephasia stephensiana
12a mountain species: Caryocolum petrophila
12b lowland species: Caryocolum alsinella, C. junctella, C. proxima
13a short corridor, seems to end upon the midrib: Ophiomyia melandricaulis
13b mine different => 14
14a larva also mines the top of the stem, causing this part of the plant to wilt : Delia echinata
14b larva exclusively in the leaf => 15
15a a corridor from start to end; puparium in the mine, in a, usually lower-surface, pupal chamber: Chromatomyia horticola
15b mine finally a blotch; larva leaves the mine before pupation => 16
16a frass in coarse blackish green lumps; at the start of the mine one (or more?) elliptic egg shell => 17
16b frass not in big lumps; no egg scale at the start of the mine => 19
17a mine generally a corridor: Pegomya holosteae
17b mine generally a blotch => 18
18a imago: abdomen yellow: Pegomya flavifrons
18b abdomen black: Delia florilega
19a mine whitish; frass in black scattered grain => 20
19b mine greenish; frass powdery, in green clouds, mostly along the sides and in the end of short side branches of the mine: Scaptomyza graminum
20a imago: tibiae reddish: Amauromyza flavifrons
20b tibiae black: Delia coronariae
Not included in the key: Caryocolum jaspidella, marmorea, Caryocolum tricolorella (improbable), vicinella; Coleophora galbulipennella, rectilineella; Trachystyphlus alpinus.