Food Plant: Ilex aquifolium (Holly), I crenata (Japanese Holly)

Mine: December-April

Notes: Forms an initial thin gallery which may become a blotch. The frass forms a narrow line in the gallery. Pupariation is beneath the leaf and the long bifid anterior spiracles project through the epidermis (those of Phytomyza ilicis are much shorter, more closely spaced and not bifid). First discovered in Belgium on I crenata (Dek & van Steenwinkel, 2018). The mines were found on young seedlings with 2-6 leaves. Also known from the Netherlands. Mines shown on I crenata .

Now known as P.germenilicis sp. nov (Thomas et al, 2026) and found in Berkshire, Hampshire and Buckinghamshire.

Data: 10.ii.2018, prov.Limburg, Kerkhoven~den Tip, Belgium

Image:© Carina van Steenwinkel

References:
Dek NJ & Steenwinkel C Van, (2018) - Phytomyza jucunda, a new leaf-miner fly for Europe (Diptera: Agromyzidae)– Nederlandse faunistische Mededelingen 51: 73-78
Lonsdale O & Scheffer SJ (2011) -Revision of Nearctic Holly Leafminers in the Genus Phytomyza (Diptera: Agromyzidae), Including Descriptions of Four New Species, Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 104(6):1183-1206.
Sasakawa, M., (1961) - A study of the Japanese Agromyzidae (Diptera), Part 2. Pac. Insects 3:307 - 472.
Thomas SJ, Houghton D, van Steenwinkel C, Hendrickx R (2026) - A new Phytomyza (Diptera, Agromyzidae) leaf-mining fly on Ilex from England with a reassessment of the status of P.jucunda Frost &saskawa in Europe - Dipterists Digest 33 p30-40