Daphnephila

Daphnephila is a genus of gall midge that appears in the Palearctic and Oriental biogeographic realms. Daphnephila species create leaf and stem galls on species of laurel plants, particularly in Machilus. Based on analysis on sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I, it has been suggested that in this genus, the stem-galling habit is a more ancestral state as opposed to the leaf-galling habit.

Daphnephila was first described in 1905 by French entomologist Jean-Jacques Kieffer. It contains at least nine described species from India, Japan, and Taiwan, and many more undescribed species are known. The genus appears to have originated tropically and dispersed to Japan through Taiwan.