grubs

[wooden shoe]

Could anyone tell me what these larvae are? Somewhere late in the afternoon I saw a patch full of very actively wriggling grubs in the garden. I have seen these patches twice, somewhere in July I believe, and in mid October when these photo's were shot.

I imagine that such an amount of larvae could do serious damage, but no plant in the neighbourhood was affected at all, so I expect they live from dead material. I also found them in the compost heap between decaying leaves so I suspect that's what they live off, there's not much fresh plants in the midst of the heap.
thanks,

Rob

[Lesley Cox]

I stand to be corrected but I think these are the grubs of the daddy-long-legs, in other words, leather jackets. I have occasionally found just such a seething mass under a tray which has been in one place on the ground for a long time. My solution was to put the tray back in place immmediately then boil a kettle of water. Not nice, but quick.

[fermi de Sousa]

My solution was to put the tray back in place immmediately then boil a kettle of water. Not nice, but quick.

Yes, a cuppa is always a good idea when you've had a nasty surprise!
 
cheers
fermi

[Anthony Darby]

They look like dipteran (fly) larvae that feed on rotting vegetation and would just speed up the decomposition process by feeding and processing it. I don't thing daddy-long-legs larvae are hairy?

[Armin]

I'm with Anthony.

I suppose the larvaes are a kind of march flies (Bibionidae). Most common here are Bibio marci and Bibio hortulanus.
In autuum they can appear in masses feeding in rotting vegetation, leaves. Usually cause no damage.

In spring, the flies are important pollinators for fruit trees and good food for many singing birds.
I wouldn't kill the larvaes.

[Lesley Cox]

Now you both have me worried in case I've done something bad. Can you post a picture someone of the mature fly? or I can Google it of course. I don't remember whether mine had hairs or not and in any case in the above pics I thought that was just rubbish on them. I didn't really see hairs as such.

[Lesley Cox]

So very many flies on Google (Diptera) but very few pics of their larvae. One of the March fly, was just about like Wooden Shoe's pics, so I'm none the wiser really. But not daddy-long-legs apparently.

[Maggi Young]

I don't think the grubs in Rob's pic are hairy... I think that is just debris, sand and soil particles sticking to them...

[Lesley Cox]

That's what I thought Maggi. I guess when I saw my lot - it's a couple of years ago now and I can't find the photos I took - I thought that nothing in such quantities and looking so disgusting, could possibly be anything good.

[wooden shoe]

Because it was late in the afternoon when I took the pictures the light levels were low. They were also wriggling a lot so the pictures are not that good, I'm sorry. But I zoomed in a bit in the higher resolution pics and looked at other pictures I made and can see they do have some bristly hairs between the debris and sand.

I think Armin and Anthony are closest to the species, but Lesley is closest to the attractiveness   
Anyway I left them wriggling and as long as the vegetation is not damaged I will leave it like that.

Thank you all,

Rob