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Hello,

about two month ago I took some water from a pond home with me and last week I found this 3cm long Stratiomyidae-larva in it. In another forum it was mentioned that it looks like a Odontomyia sp. and after searching this forum I thought it might be Odontomyia viridula? Will the fly emerge this year or does it hibernate? If the latter would it be possible to put the box in the basement, because I'm not sure, if the water in it will not freeze completley if I leave it on the balcony.

With kind regards,
Kathrin

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Dear Kathrin
In my opinion this larva would be Odontomyia ornata, but Í do not know were it is from? (which country?). As far as I can tell, most stratiomyids emerge around May-June, around the period you collected it. So if it didn't emerged yet, it will probably die, due to either lack of food, lack of substrate (filamentous algae) or something else. The new generation will hibernate as larva. I'm very unsuccesfull in breeding the aquatic stratiomyd larva, so I cannot tell you the ideal situation for breeding. My best guess is that, if you keep it in a box in the basement, and the larva emerges (it has no pupalstage) you're a lucky :@

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Hello,

sorry, I forgot to mention my location. That would be Mainz, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany :).
Ok, I already thought it might be difficult to breed it to it's final stage :|. On the other hand: I'm positive it grew to this size from a stage, where I didn't really notice it. I collected only a handful of rotten plant material from the pond, some water and four Corixa sp. - when I put it in the box, I didn't notice anything else than a few Ephemeroptera-larvae and the even smaller daphnia. So I will just wait and see, what happens and tell you the bitter or lucky ending.

With kind regards, Kathrin