Subject: Please help 🙂
Geographic location of the bug: Northeast Pennsylvania
Date: 10/22/2017
Time: 01:23 AM EDT
My three year old is very well known for his ability to spot the most camouflaged objects, insects, anything. He is the best shed hunter I know. He found an assassin Bug today that I couldn’t even see while he was pointing at it. But he also found this other… Thing. We were deep in the woods, near a swamp as well as a creek. Pine needles for ground cover mostly, but tons of birch, maple, katalpa, just a huge variety of trees. Also, a huge cliff/rock wall. We like to go here because you can find basically anything in this habitat. But we have such trouble identifying them for that same reason. I imagine it’s a simple ID, but I just can’t find this one. Any help would be appreciated!
How you want your letter signed: Devon Markarian
Dear Devon,
This is an immature insect and immature phases can be difficult to identify. We believe this is a Flower Fly larva in the family Syrphidae. You did not provide a size, and most Flower Fly larvae are under a half an inch in length. If this was much larger than that, please let us know. There are Flower Fly larvae pictured on Diptera Info and on the Oregon State University site.