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Photo#1288239
Larva in bromeliad

Larva in bromeliad
Kendale Lakes, Miami-Dade County, Florida, USA
September 4, 2016
I was curious about what was living in the little pools at the center of bromeliads in my garden (with all the Zika in the news here, I wanted to know if there were mosquitoes breeding in them). I found no mosquito larvae in any of them. I did find many of these in most of them. They all seem to be of the same kind but there were many different sizes (~1-2mm long and smaller). They swam in serpentine motion, not wriggling like mosquitos. Taken with cell phone through lense of stereo microscope at 20X mag. Living with them there were also a great number of ostracods and few mites the size of the larva's head.

Moved
Moved from Meniscus Midges.

Moved
Moved from Flies.

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

Dixidae
This appears to be the larva of a "meniscus midge", a member of the family Dixidae. There are all sorts of nifty arthropods - and worms - in bromeliad phytotelmata (water held by plants).

 
Not a dixid
This isn't a dixid. Maybe a cerat?

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