#1
I suspect this is a syrphid larva, but I don't have Rotherhay, so haven't been able to get much further with the ID. Collected today from an East London Cemetery Park. It was sheltering near the base of a
Carex remota Remote Sedge, only a couple of feet from a pond. It measures 10mm at rest and about 13mm when stretched to full racing mode. I would be happy to rear it if someone could give me some advice on what to do (note that my record with hoverfly larva is dismal, so perhaps I had better release it
)
#5
Robert and Paul - many thanks. Graham also thinks it is
Platycheirus sp and has given me some tips for rearing it, so I will let you know what happens in due course.
#6
I am pleased to report that the syrphid larva I picked up in Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, east London in October last year pupated in mid-February and hatched on 17 April - but not into a
Platycheirus. I have identified it as a male
Sphaerophoria scripta and attach photos. I'm afraid it hatched at a thoroughly inconvenient time and I had to pin it in a hurry, so I have not hinged out its genitalia because its wings seemed so clearly shorter than its abdomen. Now that it is pinned I am not so sure though. I have looked at the hairy genital lobes as best I can in their position tucked under the abdomen, and they do seem to be long, as for
scripta, but I hope I haven't made a frustrating mistake.