Crane fly larva!

[Scythemantis]

Overturning rocks today I found, for the first time ever, what I believe is a terrestrial crane fly maggot (some species are aquatic if I remember, and I've found those)...it's fascinating. It acts dead and motionless when touched, but left alone it gets VERY active, and looks exactly like an ordinary housefly maggot, just huge in comparison...over an inch! I've never seen such a big maggot in person.

I've put it in my small terrarium with my madagascar hisser, cave roach, and african millipede. They all get along well enough so I figure they'll ignore the giant maggot now burrowing quietly through their substrate of peat and potting soil.

 

[Ecilious]

*Imagines the look on your face if you found nothing but a huge maggot in the terrarium*

Heh-heh-heh.

 

[reptillian]

thats not that exciting!

 

[Jesse607]

I'm pretty sure that I have read at one point or another that some terrestrial cranefly larvae are predatorial.

 

[Scythemantis]

Well good luck to it, everything in the tank is at least six times larger and heavily armored.

It probably dried out or something anyway, the soil doesn't hold moisture well at all.

It's exciting to me, I like maggots!