#3763 · 🪰 flies & mosquitoes
European Holly Leafminer
🇳🇱 Hulstvlieg ·Phytomyza ilicis
10 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
- 1. © Steven Cross · CC0
- 2. © Maurice Maynard · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 3. © Maurice Maynard · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 4. © Paul Quigley · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 5. © Harsi S. Parker · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 6. © B. Phalan · CC BY 4.0
- 7. © Lukas Lattwein · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 8. © Butor and Gogol · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 9. © oliverc29 · CC BY 4.0
- 10. © John D Reynolds · CC BY-NC 4.0
what is it?
Phytomyza ilicis , the holly leaf miner , is a fly whose larvae burrow into leaves of the holly tree ( Ilex aquifolium ) leaving characteristic pale trails or leaf mines. The holly leaf miner has frequently been used in ecological studies as a system to study food webs since examination of the leaves can reveal whether the leaf miner has successfully emerged, been killed by a parasitic wasp, or been predated by blue tits.
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- Spotted 530 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: the #12 most seen of the flies & mosquitoes in NL.
- 10,930 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by John Curtis in 1846 (180 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- European Holly Leafminer
- Nederlands
- Hulstvlieg
- scientific name
- Phytomyza ilicis
- class
- Insecta
- order
- Diptera
- family
- Agromyzidae
- sightings in NL
- 530
- sightings in Europe
- 8,906
- sightings worldwide
- 10,930
- GBIF records in NL
- 7,710
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1846 by John Curtis
relatives· Agromyzidae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 69629, Wikidata Q5882350, GBIF 1551672, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.