Origanum vulgare, young mine; Belgium, prov. Namur, Andenne, Andenelle © Jean-Yves Baugnée

Origanum vulgare, St. Pietersberg: old mine

Origanum vulgare, België, prov. Liège, Carrière de la Falize © Carina Van Steenwinkel

completed mine with puparium

detail

Origanu, vulgare, Belgiu, prov. Namur, Furfooz, Parc National de Furfooz © Stéphane Claerebout: young mine

same mine, lighted from behind

same mine, two days later

transparency

the fresh puparium (forned externally)

mine

Essentially a corridor mine. It begins as a tiny upper-surface spiral. The corridor at this point is so narrow and closely wound that it rather resembles a simple spot. Next follows a simple corridor running towards the leaf tip, often following the leaf margin for some distance. In the leaf apex a quite long corridor is made, while the mine is laid in loops that are so close that a secondary blotch results, with prominent secondary feeding lines. The final section of the mine again is a simple corridor, in the end of which pupation takes place. Before pupating the larva already has made a semicircular slit in the epidermis. Not infrequently the puparium falls out (Hering, 1957a).

host plants

Lamiaceae, monophagous

Origanum vulgare.

phenology

Larvae between May and August (Hering, 1957a).

BENELUX

BE recorded (JY Baugnée, Andenne).

NE recorded (Ellis: St. Pietersberg).

LUX recorded (Ellis: Dudelange).

distribution within Europe

From Lithuania to the Iberian Peninsula, and from the UK to Bulgary (Fauna Europaea, 2008).

larva

Nowakowski (1959a).

notes

The frass pattern in this species is very unusual, because the frass is not deposited in two lines, as is the rule in Agromyzidae. Especially young mines therefore may easily been taken for the work of a beetle like Apteropeda.

references

Beiger (1960a, 1979a), Bland (1994c), Buhr (1932a, 1941b, 1964a), Černý & Merz (2005a, 2006a, 2007a), Černý, Vála & Barták (2001a), Ci̇velek, Çikman & Dursun (2008a), Dreger & Myssura (2005a), Guglya (2021a), Hartig (1939a), Hering (1931a, 1936b, 1957a, 1967a), Michalska (1970a), Nowakowski (1959a), Robbins (1991a), Sønderup (1949a), Spencer (1959a, 1972a,b, 1974a, 1976a), von Tschirnhaus (1999a).