Gargantuan Mel Maggot!

[cloud jaguar]

I made a couple of mel cultures the other day - so far lots of maggot action and many pupae but no flies yet. I just noticed what must be the largest fruitfly maggot in the history of the universe crawling around in there!!!!!! Very wierd!!! I did not let the culture mix (masa one) stand out at all - i simply mixed it and placed into the deli cups. I do not understand!!! There is only 1 large one in there! What the heck??????

 

[Rick]

Got a pic? Do you have other kinds of ff's?

 

[cloud jaguar]

No pic since my wife has the camera - perhaps later tonight I can get a pic when my friends come over. I have no other type of ffs - only mels. I had to buy some at Petco since i had 1 limbata ooth and 2 floridensis ooths hatch at almost the same time! I used some of the last Petco flightless mels to start my 2 masa ff cultures.

I will keep my eyes open for any other large maggots in there - but so far only tons of mini maggots and 1 huge one squirming around in there.

 

[PhilinYuma]

My guess would be that:

1) This is a Mutant Maggot caused by radioactive gases released by the San Andreas fault.

2) It is a Cannibal Crawler getting fat off the flesh of its helpless brothers and sisters (can you see its teeth?).

3) It is a Large Larva from a housefly that accidentally contaminated the culture.

A simple genetic analysis will tell the full story.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Ditto, what Phil said!

 

[kamakiri]

Probably a different fly like Phil says. I had something like that happen before and I tossed the culture.

 

[Katnapper]

I've had houseflies breed in a net cage that I used to propagate flying melanogasters (just adding new cultures to the cage with the lids off about every week or two). It's probably a house fly maggot, like Phil said. But I wouldn't throw the culture away.