Posted by Arthropa on 03-01-2005 00:03
#1
Hello,
Happy New Year to everyone ! B)
I found this on a wall this morning :
(Saint Apollinaire (21), France - 6 mm)
The round hole seems (in my opinion ! ;)) to be some parasit hole ?
Can anyone tell me whenever the parasited larva was some diptera larva or not ?
Edited by Arthropa on 05-01-2005 23:57
Posted by Gerard Pennards on 04-01-2005 00:21
#2
Hello Benoit,
All the best to you too for the new year, and hopefully it brings you a lot of flies for nice pictures!:D:D
The holes in these exuviae are for sure from a parasitoid, because you can see exactly on the edges of the hole where they have chewed their way out!
But I'm not sure they are Diptera, to me it looks more like the empty skin of a larva of Coleoptera.
In fact they remember me of larvae from the family Dermestidae to be more precise, although those are even more hairy than this.
This family contains among others the ones that eat your dry insect collection if you don't protect them properly.
Look at this link for example: http://collections.ic.gc.ca/biodiversity/family/Dermestidae.html
But how big is this skin anyway? And did it have a kind of head that is not visible on the picture? I can see (I think:o) something like dark legs or so on the under side of the picture, or am I dreaming? ;)
Another possibility would be a caterpillar of some small moth!
Greetings,
Edited by Gerard Pennards on 04-01-2005 00:32