Phytomyza thymi Hering, 1928
Diptera, Agromyzidae

from Hering (1928b)
mine
Mine upper-surface, a corridor, widening into a blotch. The corridor starts in the leaf base, between leaf margin and midrib. It ascends along the leaf margin to the tip, descends, and about halfway or somwehwat further down it forms a blotch. Frass in the corridor in coarse strings, dispersed in the blotch. Pupation external, exit slit in the upper epidermis.
When the vacated mine dries, the blotch with adjacent leaf margin drops out, giving the remainder of the leaf a characteristic half-elliptic excision. Looking for the mines is thereby made slightly easier.
hostplants
Laminaceae, monophagous
Thymus alpestris, serpyllum.
phenology
Larvae in June.
BENELUX
Not known from the Benelux countries (Fauna Europaea, 2010).
distribution within Europe
From Lithuania to the Pyrenees, and from France to Poland (Fauna Europaea, 2010).
puparium
Brown.
references
Beiger (1960a, 1965a), Buhr (1932a, 1964a), Černý & Merz (2007a), Dreger & Myssura (2005a), Hering (1928b, 1957a), Michalska (1970a), Skala & Zavřel (1945a), Sønderup (1949a), Spencer (1976a), von Tschirnhaus (1999a).
27/01/2017