Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Larvae for ID

Posted by Tony Irwin on 18-09-2008 20:16
#7

Oddly enough, I'm rearing Ephydra at the moment with little problem - but I agree with Paul - it's not always easy - maggots can be very temperamental! Often, the difficulty is keeping them cool enough in captivity, but in this case that shouldn't be a problem!
As for the identification, they do look like Ephydra, but there are other similar species. Halmopota tends to have all the prolegs the same, and Ephydra and Setacera tend to have the last proleg much bigger than the others, but this is not always evident in younger larvae. As Moo suggests, keeping some larvae and rearing them is the safest method (until we know the life-history of all the species ;)). If you have the opportunity, visit the site at a later date and collect puparia - it's much easier to rear from them!