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Hello,

These two larvae were found in compost near Paris (France), and bread until adults on rotten apple. As there's not so much lauxaniidae larvae / pupae on the web, I post them here.
larvae

I had the pupae in early january :
pupae

The first indivudual emerged the 02 february. These views were taken a few minutes after the emergence, and these 24 hours later.

The second individual emerged a few days later.

My questions are :
. is this individual male or female ?
. is it possible to tell the species ? (other views on demand).

Thanks a lot !...

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Hi

There is very little written about the early stages of European Lauxaniidae. Very well done on for finding and rearing these.

It's a male. The acrostichals between anterior dorsocentrals are in six rows, and blue green iridescence would point strongly to Calliopum aeneum, but one would need to see genitalia.

When dead, make sure both the pupal case and specimen are stored together on the same pin.

Mark

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Many tanks for your answer !... Unfortunately, I won't be able to show the genitalia, as I don't know how to do that. (And I won't keep the dead specimen either : I am not an entomologist, just someone a little bit curious).

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You can take any kind of small vial or tube that can be closed and put them all in. Then send it to me (see http://www.diptera.info/viewpage.php?page_id=32). So we can save it for posteriority :D

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Ok, I'll do that. As I am really inexperienced in all this, I have a few questions :

. The second specimen emerged yesterday, do you also wish me to send it ? (it should be possible to put them in separate vials to avoid confusions)
. Is it necessairy to put them in alcohol, or not ?
. They are still alive, how shall I proceed to kill them ? is freezing ok ?
. Do you wish me to send the pupal cases with the specimens ?

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If you can manage keep them separate, just in case there are two species of different sexes (both can result in slight differences in the puparia), so you should certainly send the puparia as well. Freezing will be okay but beware that they do not get too humid when you get them from the freezer. Alternatively, if you do have alcohol, I would prefer that myself. In that case just transfer specimens to alcohol (it will kill them quickly).

Cheers!

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I sent the specimens yesterday. In the meantime, I took photos of the second imago

As the tip of the abdomen appears different from that of the first one, I think this one is a female, is it right ?

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They are indeed Calliopum aeneum, one male and one female.:D

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Ok, thanks a lot !...