Oenopia impustulata - Larva

Late instar larva of the scarce Oenopia impustulata. Sometime in 2011 Lo Troisfontaine sent me a female beetle he had found in Limburg (Netherlands) and by the time it arrived she had laid a few eggs in the little box, so I was exited at the opportunity and tried raising the resulting larvae to adulthood. This proofed to be a challenging undertaking as they needed aphids taken from Downy Birches found mostly in bogs. At the time my images were the only photos of larvae available for this species and they still might be :o)

Update/Note:
Erratum for: Nedvěd, Oldřich (2015/2020) Brouci Čeledi Slunéčkovití Střední Evropy / Ladybird Beetles (Coccinellidae) of Central Europe. Zoologické Klíče / Zoological Keys, Volume: 4. Praha: Academia.

A few years back a wonderfully detailed book by Oldřich Nedvěd came out, titled : "Ladybird beetles (Coccinellidae) of Central Europe" (bilingual Cz/En). A must-have for anyone seriously interested in Coccinellids.

Unfortunately, there was a mix-up with one of the images:
In the first edition, image FL59 (page LVIII) for the larva of Oenopia conglobata actually shows a yellow form of a Propylea quatuordecimpunctata larva.

At the time, I wrote Oldřich a note to alert him to this and at the same time offered him the above image for a possible future edition as the book did not have an image for the larva of Oenopia impustulata (as stated above, to my knowledge, my images are still the only around). I was assuming he would have ample replacement for the erroneous O. conglobata larva himself.

This year (April 2020) the second edition came out, but to my dismay the above image of Oenopia impustulata was used as a replacement for the erroneous image of Oenopia conglobata.
The text in the book has always been clear enough about the subtle differences between the larvae of the two, so I have to assume that my communications about the photos must have caused the confusion and hence the new error. I'm really sad about this situation (sorry Olda!).

So, to be clear: The second edition of the book (2020) now shows the above image as FL59 for Oenopia conglobata. It is not. It is Oenopia impustulata.
For those who own the book: A proper image of the larva of Oenopia conglobata is here:

A rather old side-by-side showing the confusingly similar larva of the the three species invloved is here: