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Hello,

I found this larva today where there was a Dryomyzidae egg yesterday on rotting fungi, look here.

No more Dryomizidae egg! The larva was 6-7mm long, it went down a hole where the egg had been. Surely the egg could not have hatched and grown that quickly? Maybe the larva ate the egg. :o

Does anyone recognise it?

3 pics

Janet

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pic 2

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pic 3

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This larva looked like it was ready to pupate on 13th November, although I have still seen a smaller one. It had partially burued itself in the ground and the tubercules at the end were shrunken, after moving the fungus it disappeared completely into the ground.

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A pic I took of it on 13th November, it did start to move but was slow. Any clues?

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Looks a little more Sciarid than Syrphid to me - seems like the wrong habitat for the latter.

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It is not a Syrphid. The posterior spiracles aren't fused, typical for Syrphidae larvae.

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Thank you for the tip! :)

Jason, I doubt it is a Sciarid, the head is not typical of Nematocera. It is more typical of Brachycera, or maybe closer still I think Cyclorrhapha.

http://www.aments...hapha.html

I found an image of a Medetera sp. larva which looks similar.

http://www.insect...um=0745042

There was larva of a small Staphylinid beetle on the fungus, I also saw an adult Staphylinid both of which were around 3mm. As Medetera appear to be predatory on the larvae or pupae of beetles can anyone tell me if this is possibly Medetera? I do have at least one species of Medetera which is ~4mm, M. truncorum. The fungus also had a mass of micro organisms waving about like tiny worms. The article mentions that medetera are bark beetle predators but maybe they can be found in fungi too?

http://books.goog...mp;f=false

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I got more pics of this on 12th November, I have cropped off the head. You can see it the second pic it has two 'prongs' emerging from the opening although the flash has made a sparkle in the middle of them!

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prongs