The Society for the study of flies (Diptera)

Hello,

I live in Cambridge and noticed recently some Ranunculus sceleratus plants which were heavily leaf-mined.  I had a look on http://www.ukflymines.co.uk/ and http://www.leafmines.co.uk but could not find any mention of leaf-mining insects recorded from this plant in Britain.

So, I collected a few of the leaves and kept them in a specimen tube.  This produced within a few days a couple of what look like tiny parasitoids 1 mm long, which presumably emerged from one of the mines, then a few days later a tiny dark brown fly puparium attached to the lid of the tube.

The fly emerged today after perhaps about two weeks (unfortunately I didn't make a note of the date I collected the leaf mines).  I'd be very interested if someone could identify it from the photos (mine, parasitoids, puparium and adult fly) posted here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/benphalan/L … u3pSHZVgDM

It looks like the most likely species is *Phytomyza ranunculi* (recorded on Ranunculus sceleratus on http://www.bladmineerders.nl), but the leaf mines look more squiggly than those illustrated on the web, so it would be nice if there's someone out there who could confirm this.

I'm not an entomologist, so am not sure who to report the record to if the identification is confirmed.  The NBN gateway does not have a record of this fly from the 10 km square I found it in.  I have preserved the fly and the parasitoids in alcohol - is there someone I could send them to for identification/confirmation?

All the best,

Ben