Hidden in the jelly: the uncommon lifestyle of a dipteran larva

Close-up and macro photography can reveal the natural history of small organisms in fine detail. We observed a stunning example when author YFM was photographing an adult male huntsman spider (Sparassidae) on a leaf of a piperaceous plant in the coastal Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil. On closer inspection of the image, he was surprised to detect a cranefly larva (probably Geranomyia sp) inside a globular, transparent clump of jelly upon the leaf. Although potentially a nutritious delicacy for the spider, the larvae remained motionless, immersed within the jelly mass and undetected by the spider as it walked across the leaf.