Jun 2, 2017
#1236 - Syrphid Maggot
Back in 2015, I pulled up at a job, looked down at the weeds beside the driveway, and discovered an entire ecosystem of parasites, predators, other parasites, and pathogens. And I only noticed the pathogen this evening. Which only goes to prove just how behind I am in posting the species I’ve actually managed to ID.
The plants were Common Sowthistle, Sonchus oleraceus, and it was heavily infested with Brown Sowthistle Aphids Uroleucon sonchi , so I knelt down in the hope of finding anybody taking advantage of this - and I did. This hoverfly larvae is gorging her way through the infestation, something many of the more common hoverflies do as maggots.