Microdon mutabilis

Microdon mutabilis, is a species of hoverfly. It is found in many parts of Britain and Europe. The distinctive almost slug-like larvae live in ants' nests.^[1] They are hemispherical in shape, heavily armoured and believed to prey on the eggs and larvae of a number of ant species, including Formica lemani, Formica fusca, Lasius niger and Myrmica ruginodis.^[2] It was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.^[3]

Microdon mutabilis
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Diptera
Family:	Syrphidae
Genus:	Microdon
Species:	M. mutabilis
Binomial name
Microdon mutabilis (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
Microdon apiformis(De Geer, 1776) Musca apiformisDe Geer, 1776 Musca mutabilisLinnaeus, 1758

Description

For terms see Morphology of Diptera

Wing length 6–9 mm. Pterostigma 2-2.5 times as long as the length of the wing margin between ends of wing veins R1 and R2+3. Scutellum red or dark red. The male genitalia are figured by Doczkal and Schmid (1999).^[4] Note M. mutabilis is only reliably distinguished from M. myrmicae by features of the puparium. See references for determination.^{[5][6] [7][8][9]}