Moved from March Flies.

Moved from ID Request.

While it's impossible to know what something that has never been seen before would look like, I find it highly unlikely that it's a Merope larva. Many entomologists have been looking for it for many years, and mentioning it is a good way to get us excited. This particular specimen really is a very good fit for a bibionid larva. Let's look at the characters here: there are very few (or no) known legless mecopterans, whereas all fly larvae are legless. Known mecopterans have eyes and 2-segmented antennae, whereas this is eyeless and has very short or absent antennae (can't really see) The mouthparts, sclerotized head capsule, and fleshy projections all point to Bibionidae.

It is conceivable that meropeid larvae just happen to have convergent morphology. Then again, maybe they closely resemble carabid larvae, or sawflies, etc. Such speculation is fun, but not really useful. You could only tell for sure what this is by rearing it to adulthood or by using DNA identification.

I strongly recommend that all Eastern bugguiders pay close attention to soil or leaf litter larvae. A Merope larvae will most likely be similar to other mecopteran larvae, so one could start by sifting moss to look for boreid larvae, and nice loamy leaf litter for panorpid and bittacid larvae, or soil for panorpodids. Getting more photos of known mecopteran larvae will be a starting block for finding Merope larvae.

"You are right in that it does have a mecopteran look about it, with the fleshy tubercles on the tergites. However, I know of no mecopteran with the legs?, prolegs?, papillae?, on the abdomen as displayed in this creature. Only one caveat, we still know nothing about the immature stages of the primitive mecopteran, Merope tuber, which does live in New England."

To me it resembles a March Fly larva--Family Bibionidae. According to the comments here, members of the genus Bibio form large clusters in soil, etc. I've seen a number of such clusters, myself.