Larva ID

Moved

Moved from Flat-footed Flies.

… Bob Biagi, 25 September, 2019 - 3:37pm

Moved

Moved from Flat-footed Flies.

… Martin Hauser, 10 June, 2011 - 5:11pm

Moved

Moved from Fungus Gnats and Gall Midges.

… Martin Hauser, 10 June, 2011 - 5:11pm

Moved

Moved from Unidentified Immature Stages.

… Martin Hauser, 8 October, 2010 - 6:02pm

Moved

Moved from ID Request.

… Tim Loh, 24 December, 2009 - 5:47pm

Cunaxidae!

Great! The mite in the picture is a cunaxid (Eupodina: Bdelloidea: Cunaxidae), a member of the sister family to bdellids. A new addition to BG! You can just barely see in this photo the curvature of the palps indicating their use in prey capture. Bdellids, by contrast, have sensory palps ending in two long setae. My labmate works with this family, and should be able to confidently ID the genus when he gets back from Christmas break.

Cecidomyiid larvae can be easily recognized by a distinct sclerite on the thoracic venter. I don't see that sclerite in the image of the flipped specimen, so they're either not cecidomyiids, or the sclerite isn't in focus...

As usual... awesome images Scott. When am I gonna see a book of your photo's on the shelves? :)

… Ray Fisher, 23 December, 2009 - 12:56pm

Guide page

We have a three-year old guide page for Cunaxidae, which is empty and totally blank--so if you want to add a cropped image of the mite to that section, Scott, that would be fanstastic!

… Charley Eiseman, 23 December, 2009 - 1:00pm

Ray, Charley...

Thanks! I can provide a closer crop of the mite for that page. I will also try to find another specimen and get some better images of it. This image was made to try and get the mite, larva and springtail all in focus. The springtail at upper left was a surprise that I didn't see until I viewed the images on the computer!

Ray, I'll make it a personal goal to put these images into a book someday!

… Scott Justis, 23 December, 2009 - 1:05pm

Wow!

What a colorful group! Frans only looks in the Collembola section, so you might move this image there. The larvae look dipteran... a lot of gall midges (Cecidomyiidae) have orange larvae, so that's a possibility.

… Charley Eiseman, 23 December, 2009 - 12:33pm

I Have...

collected some of the pieces of bark that I found these critters in. I'm going to see if I can find more of those springtails like the one in the upper left part of this image. Hopefully I can get some better images to submit to the Collembola section later.

… Scott Justis, 23 December, 2009 - 12:36pm

FABULOUS!! Of course

...and how in the world did you get all four of them to hold still!!!

… Wisconsin Oecanthinancy, 23 December, 2009 - 7:42pm

I Was..

just lucky, I guess. The little mite is usually very active and may have just finished dining on the little springtail.

… Scott Justis, 23 December, 2009 - 10:31pm

...and I hope you add this photo

to your favorite shots group.

… Wisconsin Oecanthinancy, 24 December, 2009 - 6:35pm