For the second time the Malloch Society has visited the old growth forests along the Finnish- Russian border. From our base at Khumo we spent 10 days looking for the larvae of saproxylic Diptera (and some Coleoptera) amongst these magnificent forests and, with our usual team-based approach, we found an exciting variety of species.  The full results of our visit have yet to be compiled but we were successful in obtaining larvae from a wide range of families including Syrphidae, Clusiidae, Dolichopodidae, Lonchaeidae, Xylophagidae, Stratiomyidae, Rhagionidae and Tipulidae to name but a few. One of the highlights was finding a larvae of the hoverfly genus Spilomyia, one of the few times that such larvae have been found.

                                            At the end of a hard day !

One of the most interesting species which we found was the spectacular wasp imitating stratiomyid Xylomya czekanowskii, a European red listed species. Larvae were found underneath the bark of a large fallen  aspen tree at only one of the many sites we surveyed, the larvae were confine to the larger parts of the trunk where it is mosslty over 75cms in diameter.

                                 male X. czekanowskii