Agromyzidae (1)

Minierfliegen Leaf-miner flies

The family Agromyzidae (leaf-miner flies) belonging to the superfamily Opomyzoidea is currently divided into the subfamilies Agromyzinae and Phytomyzinae.
The adults of most Agromyzidae species are small and have a body length in the range of 2 to 3 mm.
The females deposit their eggs below the epidermis of the host plants of the phytophagous larvae. After hatching, the larvae start to eat. Many species are monophagous. They develop on a single or a few species of a genus of plants. Only a few leaf-miner fly species are polyphagous and feed on plants from different families. The larvae feed mines into leaves, mine or bore in stalks or feed on developing seeds and pods. A few species also live on roots and young twigs of trees or form galls.