Agromyzid Activity

Last month, whilst down in England with The Ghost, I collected several very small fly pupae from within old Hogweed stems. A bit of online detective work led us to believe that we had found Melanagromyza angeliciphaga, which would be a new species for both of us. Anyway, we each took several home in the hope of rearing through some adult flies, hence enabling a conclusive identification.

Earlier this evening, The Ghost asked if I'd had any flies emerge from my pupae yet, seeing as he'd recently had a couple hatch out. I hadn't actually checked since yesterday morning and a quick look revealed that one was definitely colouring up in readiness to emerge. I can only surmise that it's a lot colder on my desk up here on the tundra than it is in The Ghost's Haunted House down in tropical Hampshire, hence my pupae - who live in a tube within inches of my eternally open window - must still think it's midwinter. I haven't had to scrape any ice from their glass tube yet, but it's been close a few times. Balmy it certainly ain't!

Here's a pic from a few weeks back when they'd just arrived here in Uig

Home Sweet Home, chaps

And here's a pic of tonight's star of the show

You can even see the legs - how amazing is that!?!

Even now it completely baffles my brain to think of a small, 'mindless' maggot encapsulating itself in a thin external case, dissolving almost its entire body apart from the central nervous system into a glutinous soup and then re-solidifying into a completely different assemblage of parts including compound eyes, wings, articulated legs, bristles and genitalia - none of which it had beforehand! It really is just boggling when you think about it. It's akin to putting a two year old child into a sleeping bag for a few months and having an adult dolphin emerge afterwards. 

I was quietly admiring this process of transformation when something quite unexpected happened. Well, unexpected for me at least. The legs kicked. I mean, I actually saw them kick! Then they kicked some more, this was so ridiculously cute! I managed to capture a bit of it on video. 

This may be niche, and my paternal instincts may be overriding the accepted norm, but how bloody amazing  is this?!?!

I bet you didn't start today thinking you'd be watching fly legs kicking from within the pupal case. But why are they twitching like that? Is the fly dreaming (and of what)? I've seen plenty of dogs 'running' and woofing in their sleep, clearly dogs dream. Do flies? Is it, as I believe more likely, strengthening muscles that have never previously existed?

So I've now moved Junior into a larger pot, in order that he can walk around a bit, stretch his newly formed legs and find somewhere suitable to expand his wings. Here's his new home

Minimalistic but functional

This is a far larger glass tube, plenty of room to properly develop its wings. I've placed Junior on a piece of plastazote for traction as he emerges. There's a strip of nu-poly for him to climb up if he wants to hang vertically. There's also space at either end of the plastazote pad for him to wander onto the underside should he so wish (an earlier agromyzid that I bred through spent its first two days upside down on the underside of a leaf, maybe it's something they like to do?) Anyway, apart from a seesaw and set of swings, Junior has all he could ever need. Other than food. And a mate. And a future. 

Seeing those legs kick put me in mind of a few songs. Hope at least one of these catches your fancy

I delivered to one of the band members of Ozric some years back. I won't say that I fell over bongs and got stoned just by breathing the air in his hallway. But yeah, I fell over bongs and stuff....

Not sure how long I need to wait for Junior to emerge, should be a couple of weeks at most I suspect. Naturally, I shall keep you updated.