Tag Archives: hoverfly larva

Doomed

16 Tuesday Nov 2021

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During Sunday morning’s meander around Cosmeston, I watched this little drama play out on a fence post: the larva of one of the Syrphus* species of hoverfly was being injected with eggs by a parasitic wasp. The poor larva was bucking about, desperately trying to get rid of the intruder, but to no avail. The wasp’s ovipositor was firmly wedged into the hoverfly larva, pumping eggs into its body. The larva will be eaten from the inside by the wasp’s larvae when they hatch.

*My ID was wrong. When I recorded this find, I got the following message from national recorder Geoffrey Wilkinson: ‘This is a small 3rd-stage Epistrophe grossulariae – the rear breathing tube is longer than broad and is two-toned in colour (brown tipped, clear base). Although the colour pattern has yet to fully develop you can just see the fish-bone pattern of green and make out the black dorsal dashes.’

Syrphus hoverfly larvae

06 Saturday Nov 2021

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We’ve seen the Godzilla of hoverfly larvae, one of the Dasysyrphus species, and, back in February 2020, I featured my very first hoverfly larva, one of the Platycheirus family, and then in September we saw the larva and adult of Scaeva pyrastri. However, I haven’t yet shown you the larvae I see most often, those of the Syrphus species of hoverfly.

211106 syrphus sp (1)

I usually find these on Sycamore leaves, the undersides of which are home to thriving families of aphids, the hoverfly larvae’s favourite food. Occasionally, I’ve found larvae on the tops of leaves or on branches, perhaps on the move to a new leaf. And yesterday, on Twitter, I saw a short video by my go-to hoverfly larvae expert on the various species of hoverfly larvae he had found on gravestones under Sycamore trees in his local cemetery. I’ll be checking out that idea during one of next week’s nature walks. Meantime, try turning over some Sycamore leaves – you never know what might be lurking underneath.

The Godzilla of hoverfly larvae

26 Tuesday Oct 2021

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The highlight of Friday’s walk was marvelling at this hoverfly larva catch an aphid. The larva sat, perfectly camouflaged on its Sycamore seed, waiting for an unsuspecting aphid to tootle past. Though these larvae are blind, they can obviously sense movement, as this one rapidly twisted its body towards any approaching larvae. As I watched, it missed the first one but the next larva to chance its luck was grabbed and was in the process of having its life juices sucked out when I moved on.

211026 hoverfly larva (1)

Geoff, a hoverfly larvae expert I consulted on Twitter, was able to confirm a species but not a precise identification: ‘The Godzilla of hoverfly larvae! Certainly Dasysyrphus sp. probably albostriatus. Need a dorsal view of the rear breathing tube to be certain.’ Yes, you read that right – not only is the larva blind but it also breathes through tubes in its rear end!

211026 hoverfly larva (2)

Scaeva pyrastri

04 Saturday Sep 2021

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It’s quite the transformation, from this green larva that looks a bit like a cross between a slug and a caterpillar …

210904 scaeva pyrastri (1)

to this black-and-white flying creature.

210904 scaeva pyrastri (2)

This is the hoverfly Scaeva pyrastri and, amazingly, it’s a migrant from mainland Europe. A bit like the Red admiral butterfly, Scaeva pyrastri has good years and bad years, sometimes visiting lowland Britain in large numbers, sometimes hardly at all. And, when it comes here, it does often breed locally (and here, I must add a caveat – the larva in my first image may actually be the other Scaeva species, S. selentica, though that species hasn’t actually been recorded in my area).

210904 scaeva pyrastri (3)

365/366 2020 insects

30 Wednesday Dec 2020

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These are some of the highlights of my year in insects:

201230 hoverfly larva

I found my First hoverfly larva (and I’ve since found another, though not been able to identify either) …

201230 helophilus trivittatus

… and my first examples of the hoverfly species Helophilus trivittatus.

201230 Crypturaphis grassii

And, very recently, my first Italian Alder aphids, which I’ve since found on another Italian Alder tree on the other side of town.

201230 cicadella viridis

Here’s one I haven’t blogged – it’s a leafhopper, Cicadella viridis, which I saw for the first time during one of the two times this year that I actually caught a train to venture out of my local walking area (this was immediately after our first lockdown ended, when I dared to make two local train journeys – not been on a train or bus since).

37/366 My first hoverfly larva

06 Thursday Feb 2020

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When I first saw this creature, I thought it might be a butterfly or moth larva but I was wrong – nothing new there!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Thanks to a Twitter pal, I now know it’s a hoverfly larva and, with some excellent help from an entomologist who specialises in flies, I also now know it’s one of the Platycheirus family of hoverflies but not which of their 25 British species.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Apparently, little is known about the larvae of some species of hoverflies: their larvae have not yet been fully examined or described, so you really need to rear a dormant larva through to adulthood to be sure. Not knowing that, I left this one in the woodland where I saw it, but next time …