Larva - white with orange marks

[Bruce Williams]

Northants garden on ornamental Hypericum.

Firstly, I know the leaf colour looks over saturated however it's an unusual type of Hypericum and the image colour is reasonably true.

The larva looks a bit hoverflyish to me although I've not seen one this shape before. Help with identification appreciated as always:



Bruce

[UB4 gardener]

i believe its hoverfly, the strange shape due to it starting to pupate.

Chris

[aeshna5]

I would agree with hoverfly larva too Bruce. Maybe Roger can take it further.

[Bruce Williams]

Thanks for your help Chris and Aeshna - it hadn't occured to me that it might be about to pupate. I've since done some Googling on hoverfly pupae and see that they are typically pear shaped like this one. I'll check again tomorrow.

Meanwhile here's a close-up pic of the rather interestingly complex sharp end - is it the mouth? Any info on function of this bodypart appreciated.



Bruce

[Bruce Williams]

...shot in the dark here:

Could the six dark parts at the sharp end of the pupa be spiracles (see second pic above)? Do pupae need to breath - as they're alive I'm guessing they do?

I remember being told in an old forum post that the hoverfly pupa is more correctly called a "puparium". Apparently the semi-transparent outer skin that we see is actually the inflated remains of the original larva's skin. The true pupa is inside the puparium.

Bruce