[Syrphidae] Eristalis larvae
Jamie Gundry
jg363 at cam.ac.uk
Thu Aug 27 12:02:08 BST 2009
Dear Matthew
We found many Eristalis larvae in a plastic crate that had been
accidentally left out in the rain in our garden a few weeks ago. However,
that is in Cambridge (in England, not Cambridge in the US), not in the
North West of England.
Try catching females of Eristalis tenax and/or Eristalis pertinax and keep
them in ventilated boaxes with a tiny bit of water in the corner of the
box: enough to keep the flies hydrated but not enough to drown them (for
they are very stupid!) They will live longer at +8 to +10 celsius and feed
them on honey dissolved in water. I found that gravid Eristalis pertinax
females will often lay many eggs into the drops of water in their tanks,
which you can carefully collect with a paintbrush and transfer to very
shallow water, increasing the depth of the water as the maggots grow and
their breathing tubes extend.
Into the water put dried grass (from a compost heap works fine) and small
amounts of minced beef which will go rancid and provide a great food
supply. For obvious reasons this rearing should be done as far away from
where you work day-to-day as possible: the smell in mid-summer is quite
remarkable.
If you are to breed from the adults that emerge from this rearing then they
need to be fed specific proteins as larvae, I seem to remember, which I
never did.
Hope that helps,
Jamie.
On Aug 27 2009, Matthew SULLIVAN wrote:
> Hi, At the risk of asking a silly question, what are my chances of
> finding any Eristalis larvae at this time of year in NW England? I'm
> hoping to start a culture but time has got on a bit with the
> arrangements.
>
>Many thanks,
>
>Matthew
>
>Dr Matthew Sullivan DPhil.
>Behavioural and Environmental Biology
>School of Biology, Chemistry and Health Science
>Manchester Metropolitan University
>Manchester M1 5GD, UK
>Tel +44 (0)161 247 1164
>Fax +44 (0)161 247 6325
>m.sullivan at mmu.ac.uk
>
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