Larvae, Pupae and Adult of a Biting-Midge

Ceratopogonidae
Might be Forcipomyia

Or🟥Psychodidae?? 😂😂

This tiny fly has me completely stumped. It is much smaller than a fruit fly.

I had left some indoor plant pots outside which have filled up with rain, and apparently now house some kind of larvae. I just don't know what they might be.

many Diptera do not have legs as larvae
Weevil larvae have no legs either. Same with ants, wasps and bees, and there are probably more. So in two (Diptera, Hymenoptera) of the four largest insect orders the larvae have no legs, and in the largest or second-largest family (Curculionidae) of the third of those orders (Coleoptera), the larvae have no legs either. That's quite a few exceptions.

I suspect some dipteran with a larva I’m not familiar with. Diptera is a huge group, though, and I definitely don’t know all the larvae.
Looks dipteran to me.

body segments look good for Chironomidae, but the head looks weird to me, plus I don’t see any sign of a prosternal proleg or any of the extra wiggly stuff around the rear end. If it’s a chironomid (I’m not confident either way), then it’s an odd one.

A close view of the snakey/wormy wrigglers that glint silver on the surface of pond water. They are Biting Midge (Ceratopogonidae) larvae, some of which are notorious pests. The larva in this video is feeding on water mold (Oomycota). The pupa was getting ready to leave the water

Reminds me of Ceratopogonidae.

same family as those annoying midges, whining and biting and making life a black cloud of itchy hell for people wanting simply to be outside for a bit.

Ceratopogonidae are 'biting midges' but not all of them bite (humans). That is mostly Culicoides.

Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Diptera
Suborder: Nematocera
Infraorder: Culicomorpha
Superfamily: Chironomoidea
Family: Ceratopogonidae
Genus :

Biting Midges, Ceratopogonidae, are a highly diverse group of True Flies, Diptera, found in all terrestrial environments today, and with a substantial fossil record. Female Biting Midges require a protein meal before laying their eggs, and many obtain this by taking blood or haemolymph from a living Animal (giving them the group its common name) although others visit carrion or obtain nectar or pollen from Plants. Males do not bite. The fossil record of the group dates back to the Early Cretaceous, from when eight genera are known, including six genera and thirty species from Lebanese and Jordanian amber.

#lifecycle
#larvae #stagnantwater #Ceratopogonidae
#Biting_Midges