Southern Marsh Orchids

Southern Marsh Orchids

Wednesday 7 September 2016

see-through larva of ????

Saw this on a Wallflower leaf on Tuesday afternoon. The front end is up - at least that is the direction it was moving. Size was approx 5-10mm. Grabbed some images but was distracted and when I looked back it had gone!

I assume it is a larva of some little garden beastie, but I have no idea where to start with this one. A Google search for 'transparent insect larvae ' came up with a lot of aquatics. Anyone have any ideas?



7 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks Mark - brilliant! Googled that and one of the first images up looks similar, but not sharp enough to see if it's the same. I think I'll put the images on UK Hoverflies and see what they say .....

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  2. Confirmed on UK Hoverflies Larval Group as Episyrphus balteatus (Marmalade Hoverfly)

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  3. Well done Howard, impressive that these can be identified to species!

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  4. Near enough to what I said to Ellie - one of the administrators on the Larval Group. What I find odd is that I've never seen any of these in the garden before!

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  5. I see plenty of hoverfly larvae in the garden but always assumed them to be unidentifiable

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    Replies
    1. Have a look at the Facebook page George. They ID some to family, but some are apparently distinctive enough, like the E. balteatus, to ID to species.

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