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Aquatic Fly Larvae Project

Submitted by arron2019 on

Hi all,

 

for the last 6 years i have been trying to identify many different truly aquatic fly larvae, i have collected what books i can such as the immature fly larvae yellow book and a book by Johannsen on fly larvae but i still feel like there arent any resources to go further than subgenus for some and genus for many. Quite saddening for me as i think the larvae are brilliant, i have got to a point where i have sent photos to people at the NHM and various others and never had confirmation other than family.

my first ask is, are there any people who study aquatic larvae and maybe help me get a better understanding of ID beyond genus? and secondly, i have been speaking to the World Museum in Liverpool and they have offered to support my idea of taking high resolution photographs of specimens, storing them in ethanol and then DNA barcoding them. We then get a photo crib sheet for species or even a pictorial guide i could create for others to use. Does anyone have any feedback on this as an idea?

 

kind regards

 

Arron

Comments

Ken Smith's (yellow) book has a comprehensive list of references (albeit concentrating on the British Fauna). 

The other book you should try to get is Aquatic Insects of North Europe, volume 2 - which is mostly Diptera. (editor Anders Nilsson). Again it has extensive lists of references at the end of each family chapter.