What Would I be if I were One of These?

Aquatic Fly Larva, Homer Lake Wetland, October 8, 2021

Or maybe better, "What would I become if I were one of these?" This is one of many kinds of aquatic fly larvae. Yeah, I know. Aquatic fly larvae? Are you kidding? Nope. According to this journal article, using a broad definition of aquatic species, some 46,000 fly species have some connection to aquatic habitats at some point in their development (I know -- you're thinking, 46,000 fly species!? And that's only about 1/3 of the known fly species...).  This particular larva seems to be of the soldier fly family. Descriptions of some of the soldier fly species match up with some of the small shiny green flies I saw hanging around on plant leaves on the surface of the water much earlier in the season, so I suspect that this is one of their offspring. The upraised "tail" functions as a snorkel as this is an air-breathing aquatic creature.

In addition to the soldier fly family, many other fly families have member species with aquatic larvae as well. In particular I've noted the presence of adult horseflies (again, actually not just one species but a large family of species) at the wetland as well as one or more species of flower flies, both families with species that have aquatic larvae.


A Member of the Horsefly Family at the Homer Lake Wetland, July 13, 2021


Shiny Bog Fly, a member of the Flower Fly family at the Homer Lake Wetland, July 28, 2021

The final photo below is another angle on the same soldier fly larva above, but included is one of the crawling water beetles featured in the previous "orange and black" post. Those little guys spent their time in my sorting tray swimming frantically looking for somewhere to hide, making it challenging to get photos of them or anything else by itself. Here one of them is attempting to hide under the fly larva.

Soldier Fly Larva with Crawling Water Beetle, October 8, 2021


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