# What are these?



## Stuart89 (May 4, 2008)

Just checked on my useless FF cultures, just cant get the medium right but thats another story.

There are these little red _slugs_ in there? What are they? and how did they get in the cup..? (its never open and has kitchen roll covering the top...)


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## Morpheus uk (May 4, 2008)

LOL well that proves its not entirly useless, thats fruit flies pupa


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## Stuart89 (May 4, 2008)

Oh right... The culture that came with the fruit flies has white maggots and then brown pupae, but these things are moving in my own culture :blink:


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## Morpheus uk (May 4, 2008)

What actually moving on there own?


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## Stuart89 (May 4, 2008)

yeh the head bits with the atennae are


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## macro junkie (May 4, 2008)

if there moving god knows?look like slugs :lol:


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## Ben.M (May 4, 2008)

Wow, their weird :blink:


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## Rick (May 4, 2008)

Look like regular maggots only red.


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## Ben.M (May 4, 2008)

Morpheus uk said:


> LOL well that proves its not entirly useless, thats fruit flies pupa


I thought that at the start 2


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## Morpheus uk (May 4, 2008)

They are 100% FF cacoons


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## Stuart89 (May 4, 2008)

Right Ill keep an eye on them and let you know what happens


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## mrblue (May 4, 2008)

£5 says they gradually turn darker and then fruit flies will start coming out of them in a week or two. just a guess.


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## hibiscusmile (May 4, 2008)

The hair on my head is standing straight up  ! I don't even wanta know :blink:


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## asdsdf (May 4, 2008)

My hair stands up on end normally. :lol: 

Yep, it's pupae all right. When you have white substrate, and white paper towel, the pupae seem to be red or orange.


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## Orin (May 5, 2008)

100% FF puparium. They have no means of locomotion.


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## macro junkie (May 5, 2008)

He said the pupa are moving?i didnt know pupa move :huh:


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## Ben.M (May 5, 2008)

They do when the maggot has just made it coz its soft at that time then it hardens


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## Rob Byatt (May 6, 2008)

Hmmm.

They are without doubt pupae.

They are NOT cocoons !!!! Cocoons are protective cases made from silk by the larva PRIOR to pupation.

The magot is not wriggling whilst the pupae is hardening because the maggot IS the pupae


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## Morpheus uk (May 6, 2008)

Well i was right just didnt say it right  

BTW thx for that Rob good to know


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## matt020593 (May 6, 2008)

I LOLed so much when I read this post. They're definately FF pupae  , not slugs. Hahaha.

Matt


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## hibiscusmile (May 6, 2008)

:lol: We all needed that one! It did look boogery though!


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## nympho (May 7, 2008)

i watched a ff pupa form once. the 'tentacles' are breathing tubes that the pupa has to breath when immersed in the substrate. in this case it was a wild ff type i caught outside that had much longer breathing tubes about the length of the pupae - dont know if it was another species or just a race of the normal ones - the fly just looked like a normal ff. the transition from maggot to pupae was very rapid, supprisingly changing from moving maggot to the immobile pupae shape in a few seconds, culminating in those tubes shooting out of the head end. you'd think it would take half an hour to form the pupa but it didnt. maybe the tubes can move for longer still, and alter their length or position to get air, but i didnt see these moving once they came out, they appeared stuck to the glass and immobile once they had formed. maybe you saw the pupa forming like i did


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## Stuart89 (May 7, 2008)

Yeh probably, most likely is pupae, im not sure how slugs are born but I have no idea how they could get in there, but it did fool me lol :lol:


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## nympho (May 7, 2008)

Stuart89 said:


> Yeh probably, most likely is pupae, im not sure how slugs are born but I have no idea how they could get in there, but it did fool me lol :lol:


yeah, it does look like a little slug with some more peeping over the top


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## OGIGA (May 7, 2008)

Quite an entertaining thread indeed. Yes, those are nothing other than FF pupae. Judging by the size, they're hydei.

I've never seen a pupa move. If you can get it on video, I want to see how in the world the move.


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## iceman1609 (May 8, 2008)

tbh i disagree guys, i know you got alot more experience with mantids etc than myself but i cant see these being fly lava, after the maggot stage you have the casters which are hard &amp; stationary. i had exactly the same in my cultures and these things move. casters do not move and after casters you have flys. i appreciate there are many different species of fly and this is a first for me having fruit fly but i cannot see them being any different to the ones used fo fishing exept there smaller. i could be wrong about these but i doubt it.


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## Morpheus uk (May 8, 2008)

Well like i said before anyone else had they ARE fruit fly pupa, all larvae ive seen have turned into them, and all fruit flies ive seen have hatched for them so its obvious they are fruit fly pupa no doubt about it


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## matt020593 (May 8, 2008)

Stop it i'll start crying :lol: .

But seriously, they're definatley FF pupae. I put £10 on it  .

Matt


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## Morpheus uk (May 8, 2008)

Bit like saying " the sun is black" lol


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## Rob Byatt (May 8, 2008)

got the bug said:


> i cant see these being fly lava,


You're winding us up right ?


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## hibiscusmile (May 8, 2008)

Maybe it was riding on the back of a mite!


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## OGIGA (May 9, 2008)

Maybe I need to photograph my pupae and put it here for comparison.


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## iceman1609 (May 9, 2008)

after alittle research i still dont think they are anything to do with fruit flies.these are what i found on that winkopedia site and like i said you got the maggots then casters.


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## Giosan (May 9, 2008)

got the bug said:


> after alittle research i still dont think they are anything to do with fruit flies.these are what i found on that winkopedia site and like i said you got the maggots then casters.


On the second picture, the 2nd larvae on the left has the 2 antenna like thingys too that look weird, this is what you saw!


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## Morpheus uk (May 9, 2008)

OMG I ALREADY SAID 1ST REPLY

THEY ARE FRUIT FLIES

Both castors and these pupae are flies, but that doesnt mean they have to look the same, some mantids have wings, some dont, some have wide arms some dont, some phasmids look like sticks, some look like leafs.

Look at ooths, some are big foamy masses others are tiny skid marks on twigs

Looking at your post again im guessing you mean wikipedia, so bear in mind that is not a dedecated insects sight and a lot of the information on there is not correct


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## asdsdf (May 10, 2008)

Why ask when you are unwilling to accept the opinions of everyone? It must mean something if practically every single person posts about it being ff pupae. I'm sure we've cultured a lot of flies, so I think we'd know what they would look like. The pictures you show are of a different type of fly.

http://www.bgequip.com/Red-fruit-fly-pupae.jpg

http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2005/10/051025074024.jpg

Attack of the pupae slugs. Those are the real pupae. Wait a while. When they hatch, I'm sure you will realize your mistake.


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## matt020593 (May 10, 2008)

LOL :lol: .

Matt


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## Orin (May 10, 2008)

Rob Byatt said:


> I posted a reply on here just before Giosans'. Where did it go ? Why does this always happen when something is written by me that some people on here do not like ? I'm sure we live in a democracy, maybe I'm mistaken


Hi Rob,

I don't think anyone touched your post (though I could be wrong if it contained vulgarity or was mean spirited with no redeeming content and someone else ran across it). I'm guessing you made an error when posting. You may live in a democracy but we live in a police state where even harmless exotic pet mantids are illegal.  

It can be funny when someone argues against the obvious despite all odds but the question is does this person really think they're not really what they are or just jerking the rest of us around...


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## Ben.M (May 10, 2008)

Thought i'd try to make this clear  

Castors






Here u can see a maggot about to become a castor which has the tube things(look carefully)






Castors on a stick






Flies


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## matt020593 (May 10, 2008)

Does anybody still believe they aren't FF pupae after Ben's pictures? LOL

Matt


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## Malnra (May 10, 2008)

Matthew Whittle said:


> Does anybody still believe they aren't FF pupae after Ben's pictures? LOLMatt


It was posted on the internet, so it must be true ... hehehehe


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