Stagnant water and Biting Midge larvae (Ceratopogonidae)

Ceratopogonidae (Might be Forcipomyia)

🟥Or larvae of 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.

"Larva".
"Larvae" is plural.

adult flies are known as no-see-ums or punkies

Forcipomyia or Atrichopogon
These flies look like Forcipomyia sp (Ceratopogonidae).

Larvae are generally found in moss and algae in shallow water or are terrestrial (rotten logs and leaf litter).

so I am confused whether both Ceratopgondae and Chironomidae larvae were there in the pot.

THE MOST IMPORTANT BUG (FOR ME). It’s PollinatorWeek so here’s something interesting.

Yes, insects are annoying at times. But meet the male Biting Midge of genus Forcipomyia of the family Ceratopogonidae. While their ladies go around bitting the hell out of people and animals, these dudes are working towards a US$ 135 billion industry – CHOCOLATE. Although many of the world's flowers are pollinated by bees or butterflies and moths, cocoa flowers (the tree which is the source of chocolate) are pollinated by the male Biting Midges. Many of us love chocolate very much so let’s leave these bugs (and others for that matter) in peace.
If you like chocolate, thank the exotic species of the genus. They are the only known pollinators of the cacao tree.

The Forcipomyiinae is a subfamily of the Ceratopogonidae, with larvae that look very different to other freshwater ceratopogonids. Forcipomyid larvae have paired prolegs at the head and tail ends of the body, distinctive snout-like heads and prominent setae protruding from the abdomen. They do not have the thin needle-like body form of other ceratopogonids.

it's a female biting midge in ceratopogonidae! Some species feed on insect hemolymph (blood) to nourish their eggs much like a mosquito does with vertebrate blood!
See the three small dots on this moth's wings? These are Biting Midges (Ceratopogonidae, Diptera). What are they doing? They're busy sucking haemolymph (a fluid equivalent to blood in most invertebrates) from the moth's wings.

By habit, parasite of caterpillar, it may be Forcipomyia fuliginosa.

Dragonfly (Pantala flavescens) and its ectoparasite (Forcipomyia sp., Ceratopogonidae).

Most of them attack other insects, only some go for bipedal apes.
Ceratopogonidae looks good to me. Speaking as a bipedal ape/talking monkey.

To add to that, midges (specifically two genera in the family Ceratopogonidae), are the flies pollinating cocoa. They look very similar to mosquitoes (family Culicidae):

#larvae #stagnantwater #Ceratopogonidae
#Biting_Midges