[Syrphidae] Volucella larvae from wasps nest

[Frank Dziock]

Hello Günter and everybody,

just to add on the comments you already received:

We had a wasp nest (Vespula vulgaris) in the roof exactly above our
balcony in 2001 in the centre of the city Leipzig in Central Germany.
End of September I discovered some larvae under the wooden parquet
covering the floor of the balcony. I put a flower pot underneath the
wasp nest and recorded the fall of larvae every two or three days. In
five weeks 80 larvae of Volucella sp. fell from the nest and I
identified 4 V. inanis and the rest was of the Volucella
pellucens/zonaria-type. I am not sure about the correct species
identification of the latter, but my impression was that both pellucens
and zonaria (larval size ranged from 6 to 23mm)(and 4 larval specimens
of inanis) fell from the nest.

I was really impressed by the amount of larvae that fell from the nest
and can imagine that people could be worried about what these larvae are
doing in their homes.

Best wishes from Berlin,

Frank



Günter Schwendinger schrieb:
> Hello everybody,
> 
> Yesterday a friend of from the local museum of natural history
> www.inatura.at <http://www.inatura.at> asked me if I could help him
> identify a larva which I think is a syrphid. The length of the larvae is
> 13mm (without stigmata-"horn" which has another 1mm of length). The
> larvae have been found inside houses in three cities/villages around
> here (Dornbirn, Feldkirch and Egg, all in Vorarlberg/Western Austria)
> during the last week - some in a guestroom which is not used very often,
> some in the corner of a room on the floor with mice's feces around and
> some "falling from the ceiling" according to the people who brought the
> larva to the inatura.
> Could anyone of you help me identify the species or genus? I'd
> appreciate any kind of information.
> Another thing: What were these maggots doing inside the nearly empty
> rooms? (the people here have asked for this kind of information).
> 
> Thanks in advance
> Günter Schwendinger
> 
> (Photos by Klaus Zimmermann)
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-- 

Prof. Dr. Frank Dziock
Fachgebiet Biodiversitätsdynamik
der TU Berlin
Sekr. AB 1
Rothenburgstr. 12
D - 12165 Berlin
Germany

Tel: 030 – 314 71368
Fax: 030 – 314 71355

http://www.tu-berlin.de/fb7/ioeb/biodiversitaet/

"God in his wisdom made the fly, and then forgot to tell us why." Ogden Nash

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