‘What fresh hell is she sharing with us now’, I sense you thinking. For me, though, this was Sunday’s star find, something I’ve wanted to find for ages. This is the larva of a Myathropa florea species of hoverfly that I found living in a sap run on a Sycamore tree. The ‘tail’ is actually its breathing tube, a bit like a long snorkel.

When I spotted it at the edge of a cleft in the Sycamore, I used a stick to move it gently out into the open a little more so I could get some photos. I expected to have to nudge it back but, as you can see in this short video, it turned itself around and slowly undulated itself back in to its home in the puddle of watery sap, leaf litter and insects. Now to find more maggots!