Snake Fly - what they eat?

[cloud jaguar]

My kid caught a snake fly - what do these eat?

Thanks

 

[PhilinYuma]

Snakes.

(But yr son can feed his on ffs, if he can find any! )

 

[Katnapper]

Snakes.(But yr son can feed his on ffs, if he can find any! )

@Phil

For some reason, I don't think he'll have trouble finding access to ff's! "Dad.... "

 

[Peter Clausen]

I've fed them fruit flies before, but I've never really given them the attention that would allow them to last longer than a few weeks. I kept them in pill bottles and moistened the paper towel every couple days.

They do have an entertaining snap-neck attack. They don't seem to be very effective with it on fruit flies, but they seem to get lucky at some point because when I return later the flies are eaten. I've got a photo somewhere of an individual I caught that was trailing a long white string with a white ball. Looked very much like a spermatophore, but I never asked anybody that might know. I'll see if I can (quickly) find that photo...

 

[Peter Clausen]

snakefly with spermatophore? or eggs?

 

[Rick]

I don't think I have ever seen one of those. Interesting.