Rate-Tailed Maggots present in a water.
while some organisms cannot live in polluted water, others thrive here. Rate-tailed maggots prefer to have oxygen-poor water contaminated with a lot of organic matter. They are therefore used as an indicator of water quality.
The once here is from a bucket of water that has been standing outside for a while, but they can also be found in exotic places such as sewers and around slurry containers.
This is a rat-tailed maggot, but it has actually nothing to do with rats at all. But is the larval stage of some species of hoverflies. These once recently came out of their eggs and are only a few millimeters in size. However, when fully grown, they can be a couple of centimeters long.
The small larvae use these as a snorkel to reach the water surface to breathe. The larvae can therefore typically be found in stagnant water with low oxygen content. Inside the tail, three tubes are the animal's windpipes used to carry oxygen around the body. Even though the larva itself is only a few centimeters long, it can stretch the tail which can reach a length of up to 15 centimeters.