Agromyza is a genus of flies

Fly

True flies are insects of the order Diptera . They possess a pair of wings on the mesothorax and a pair of halteres, derived from the hind wings, on the metathorax...

 belonging to the family Agromyzidae

Agromyzidae

The family Agromyzidae is commonly referred to as the leaf-miner flies, for the feeding habit of larvae, most of which are leaf miners on various plants....

. The adults of these flies can be recognised by the presence of stridulatory

Stridulation

Stridulation is the act of producing sound by rubbing together certain body parts. This behavior is mostly associated with insects, but other animals are known to do this as well, such as a number of species of fishes, snakes and spiders...

 files on the first two abdominal

Abdomen

In vertebrates such as mammals the abdomen constitutes the part of the body between the thorax and pelvis. The region enclosed by the abdomen is termed the abdominal cavity...

 tergites in both males and females. Another useful identifying feature is the halteres

Halteres

Halteres are small knobbed structures modified from the hind wings in some two-winged insects. They are flapped rapidly and function as gyroscopes, informing the insect about rotation of the body during flight....

 which are usually white or yellow, although they are darker in a few tropical species.

The larva

Larva

A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...

e of these flies are mostly leaf-miners on a wide range of plants, although a few form gall

Gall

Galls or cecidia are outgrowths on the surface of lifeforms caused by invasion by other lifeforms, such as parasites or bacterial infection. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues and can be caused by various parasites, from fungi and bacteria, to insects and mites...

s. Some are economic pests.

Species

Species include:

• Agromyza albipennis
• Agromyza ambigua
• Agromyza apfelbecki
• Agromyza cinerascens
• Agromyza drepanura
• Agromyza frontella
• Agromyza intermittens
• Agromyza luteitarsis
• Agromyza megalopsis
• Agromyza nana
• Agromyza nigrella
• Agromyza nigrociliata
• Agromyza oryzae
• Agromyza parvicornis
• Agromyza rondensis
• Agromyza yanonis

External links

• Agromyza parvicornis , corn blotch leafminer on the University of Florida
  University of Florida
  The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
  
   / Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences
  Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences
  The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences is a federal-state-county partnership dedicated to developing knowledge in agriculture, human and natural resources, and the life sciences, and enhancing and sustaining the quality of human life by making that information...
  
  Featured Creatures website