posted 18 hours ago
I think they are definitely insect larvae, probably of the Brachycera suborder of flies (which I believe are the headless larvae). I looked up pictures of black soldier flies and they do not look quite like Ronaldo's larvae, which are darker and hairier. My larvae looked rather closer to Ronaldo's, also, than to pictures of black soldier fly larvae, which also would probably be uncommon in this climate. It would seem odd if our larvae were actually the same species, but perhaps the same family would make sense. I wouldn't be surprised if this were the wider family of soldier flies, Stratiomyidae. I do recall seeing last year a number of flies that looked like soldier flies in that area, but I wasn't entirely sure, because I don't know much about fly taxonomy.
Edit: oh! Black soldier flies do occur in my climate! So maybe they are. I am guessing a different breed, perhaps, or maybe they're darker because they're eating better than the domestic ones.