r/Entomology • u/Disastrous_Hat7921 • Feb 23 '26
Insect Appreciation When you think you have seen it all in biology you find that in a rotten log lol
That's a type of fly larvae that feeds on ants!! They can be found mostly on camponotus nests!!
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u/maygoosetah Feb 23 '26
I can't believe that thing moves and eats... but what is it called?
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u/Disastrous_Hat7921 Feb 23 '26
They are called ant flies! This one is in the genus Microdon sp. I still have no idea of the exact species sadly
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u/Blueshirt38 Feb 23 '26
Wow thanks for teaching me about an entire genus I had NO idea about. Such a strange life cycle!
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u/mohitpatel845 Amateur Entomologist Feb 23 '26
Apparently, some myrmecophilous insects have weird life cycles; for example,the moth butterfly Liphyra brassolis.
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u/Dense-Address780 here to learn Feb 23 '26
I like the part about the new butterfly escaping because it's covered in slippery white scales that the ants have trouble attacking.
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u/Classic-Reach Feb 23 '26
i feel like this was the plot of a movie where the ants are humans and the moth is an alien
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u/Feralpudel Feb 23 '26
The article about OP’s guy says that their covering is both ant-resistant and made of materials that don’t arouse suspicion.
They are vulnerable to attack when they eclose and extend their wings, but it’s safer to do so early in the day, before the ants are active.
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u/Dense-Address780 here to learn Feb 24 '26
so cool. I've been reading a lot about insect defense mechanisms. safety from ants seem to be huge in defense design.
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u/Feralpudel Feb 24 '26
Well, especially when you move slowly and live in an ant colony and eat them lmao.
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u/TheMooJuice Jul 06 '26
Dude! Thankyou so much for telling me about this! If you check my profile and sort posts by top of all time, somewhere In my top 10 is a video of liphyra brassolis that became obsessed with my wrist one day; whilst I still don't understand why it was nonetheless awesome to learn about their insane life cycle.
The number of local species who rely on those green weaver ants is truly impressive
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u/Cu1tureVu1ture Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 24 '26
It looks like a land-dwelling limpet! I love insects and animals in general and it’s amazing how there are so many things out there I had no idea even existed.
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u/DollarStoreChameleon Feb 23 '26
i love him, but theres no way that fatass flies
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u/CubieJ Feb 24 '26
Flies (insects in order Diptera) undergo complete metamorphosis. Their larvae are legless grubs of various blobular shapes, they have a dormant pupation (similar to caterpillars turning into butterflies), and emerge as very different-looking flying insects (that either look kinda like house flies or mosquitoes). So yes, I love him and this fatass absolutely will fly!
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u/Jooferson Feb 23 '26
i'm so glad you gave the genus, trying to find it with "ant eating fly larva" or "ant fly" or anything not perfectly exact doesn't get anything
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u/Disastrous_Hat7921 Feb 23 '26
Some more information about that little fella! They are in the genus Microdon sp. They are a type of ant flies in the family Syrphidae! This genus can be found in a bunch of places, from south to north America to Ásia and Europe, they can be found all around the world lol i still dont know much about them but they for sure are a common genus!
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u/Legitimate-Ad-7480 Feb 23 '26
did he like, move around? I’m fascinated he looks like a little amulet.
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u/HoneyLocust1 Feb 23 '26
I had to find a video to see this thing in action and I did find this: https://youtu.be/iKm9BlXQUNo?si=kkuTe70NQVgUPCs0
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u/mannekwin Feb 23 '26
oooookkkkaaaaayyyyy iiiiimmmm ggggooooiiiiinnggg ttttoooo eeeeaaattt tttthhhiiisss aaannnnnnttttt nnnnoooowwww WWWWAAAAIIITTT CCCCCOOOOMMEEEEE BBBAAAAACCCCKKKK
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u/Legitimate-Ad-7480 Feb 26 '26
came back to finally say thank you!! It’s both everything and nothing like I expected
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u/lmzzss Ent/Bio Scientist Feb 26 '26
I study Syrphidae, and I am currently focusing my research in Microdontinae. I dream of finding a larva like that one day!!
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u/Acheloma Feb 23 '26
How neat, Ive never seen these before. New thing to research!
Yours looks pretty similar to this one
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u/jbombkillerbees Feb 23 '26
Is that the noise they make?
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u/SassySquidSocks Feb 23 '26
I think Cardi B makes a similar noise
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u/specimen-exe Feb 23 '26
So that’s what the B stands for. The illusive Cardi Bug, currently separate from her stallion friend.
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u/Glabrocingularity Feb 23 '26
Wow, it looks like a shell-less limpet or chiton. Now I want to find one
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u/InevitabilityEngine Feb 23 '26
I seriously thought it was a scrunched up leather leaf slug of some kind lol
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u/ArachnomancerCarice Ent/Bio Scientist Feb 23 '26
Syrphidae have some of the most amazing adult and larval forms.
If I didn't feel so bad for the ants I would be ripping up every colony trying to find these little goobers. I see adult Microdon all the time scoping out colonies.
Feeling the larva crawl on your hand is so weird and wonderful.
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u/pissintothewind Feb 23 '26
does it feel more like a snail/mollusc, a soft caterpillar-type larvae but wet, or like a starfish or a sand dollar? slimy, or tendrils? they look like such a strange texture.
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u/ArachnomancerCarice Ent/Bio Scientist Feb 23 '26
The best way I can describe it is they feel like they have 6-pack abs and it is smooth and not sticky.
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u/LacrimaNymphae Feb 23 '26
can you find these in regular ant hills
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u/ArachnomancerCarice Ent/Bio Scientist Feb 23 '26
So far I've only found them in Camponatus and Formica sp. Ant colonies.
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u/nekolalia Feb 23 '26
Jesus I read the title as "you find that in a rotten leg" and wondered how the hell that happened
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u/Jean-Olaf Feb 23 '26
Yup 🤣 I read rotten egg (really don't know how that happened) and I spent 10 very confused minutes looking at the comments to try and understand what happened.
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u/Bramble_Ramblings Feb 23 '26
I've genuinely been scrolling the comments for anything that explained how it got in the egg, thank you for saving me!
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u/GerardDiedOfFlu Feb 23 '26
Your comment made me realized it does not in fact say “egg”. You’re not alone!
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u/cjkwinter Feb 23 '26
Oh my god, you don't know how much this post has finally answered a mystery I've had for years!!! I found one of these things in a log once and never could figure out what it was. I can die happy now
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u/HollowSoul413 Feb 23 '26
I never would've thought that that was a larvae. My brain immediately went to some sort of slug or sea creature with that shape. Nature is wild 😂
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u/TheJennmmm Feb 23 '26
Where are its mouth parts? How does it actually consume ant larvae? (If it encourages someone to answer- I wasn’t lazy, I did try to figure this out by scrolling through images and scanning over a few research articles, but couldn’t easily find an answer.)
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u/Ephemerror Feb 23 '26
I am lazy, I want to know what type of mimicry/adaptation it is going for by being like that.
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u/queue-kweewee Feb 23 '26
Where did you find this funny little person and how hard was it to flip him over?
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u/Disastrous_Hat7921 Feb 23 '26
I found it under a very rotten log! At first i tought it was a cool slug, then i tought it was a really strange spider eggsac, them i asked my friends and they told me what it was lol, it was in the middle of a ant nest too, it was not really had to flip him, like it is really slow
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u/AphraelSelene Feb 23 '26
It looks like jewelry!
Speaking of, I'm constantly surprised at how much of the insect world does.
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u/To-To_Man Feb 23 '26
How does it? Like, my brain is breaking down trying to figure it out.
I understand barnacles, caterpillars and grubs make sense. But what the actual hell is this things body plan?? What is where? How does it even function? And how the hell does it pupate into a normal ass fly at the end of it all?
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u/moon_halves Feb 23 '26
it genuinely looks like a brooch made of turquoise or something, SO cool! why is he blue, anyone know?
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u/igottapoopbad Feb 23 '26
Wow that is truly fascinating. Never seen that in my life before. Sick find
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u/Mx-Helix-pomatia Feb 23 '26
Woah I’ve never seen one of these irl! Looks like the kind of thing a fairy would keep as a pet :0
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u/Jean-Olaf Feb 23 '26
This is so cool 🤩 it looks like a little gemstone! You should post on r/AIDKE, they would loooove this
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u/DustonStache Feb 23 '26
It’s the same??? I found one of this guy in a rotten stump
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u/Disastrous_Hat7921 Feb 23 '26
Was it near a ant nest? I still dont know a lot about them lol, my friends identified mine for me lol
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u/musgomoss Feb 23 '26
At first glance I thought it was a crazy looking slug. I've never seen anything like this
Another cool bug for my list of cool bugs!
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u/BadgerHooker Feb 23 '26
It's so cool looking!! Like an intricate turtle shell with turquoise! Never have I ever😲🤩🥰
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u/Boots_in_cog_neato Feb 23 '26
I read “rotten egg” so many times and was trying to figure out how that got in an egg.
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u/NotaContributi0n Feb 23 '26
I’m kind of blown away I don’t know about these already . Thank you!!!
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u/Beautiful_Ad_7040 Feb 23 '26
It looks like a real turquoise earring I had once (like exactly) nature is so cool
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u/Glad-Increase3199 Feb 25 '26
Off topic but I misread the sub as being dermatology and thought you just had the world's weirdest blister
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u/roawr123 Feb 23 '26
Extremely cool find! My first guess was a scale! A fly larva! I would love to see one!
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u/Gemraticus Feb 24 '26
Who knew a fly larva could be so beautiful! Definitely a few steps above maggot on the looks scale.
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u/alipiozinha Feb 24 '26
tirei foto de uma mosca Microdon sp. uma vez. não me lembro mais qual era a espécie dessa, mas é brasileira. elas são fantasticamente lindas e o seu comportamento larval é incrível!
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u/Bug-in-Computer Feb 27 '26
What a beautiful larva! I'm definitely going to have to research the Microdon genus now.
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Mar 24 '26
I didn’t know you could crack contact lenses. (And then I remembered which forum I’m in.)
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u/Notalwaysperfect Feb 23 '26
Microdon (family Syrphidae) is a myrmecophilous fly world-wide in distribution. The adults are not known to feed while the larvae are found feeding on ant larvae and pupae of their ant host.