Is this an insect?

[milan]

I found this in dead wood -size 1.3 cm. In Slovakia. Could that be an insect? Larvae of some Lycaenidae or any moth?

[africaone]

do you have picture of the underside ?

[tv]

From that picture it looks a bit like a slug or snail of some kind. The right end of the bottom specimen has the edge of what looks like a gastropod "foot". An underside image would definitely help if that's the case.

Barring that, perhaps a sentient mushroom?

[milan]

bottom side and closer view

[ckswank]

It might be a soft scale insect. Here's a short video:

[tv]

I actually found out what this thing is. This is the larva of a fly in the family Syrphidae, subfamily Microdontinae. It looks very similar to a picture in Stephen Marshall's book for a Microdon globosus.

Here is a picture on Bug Guide

Mollusk like larva

[nomihoudai]

Couldn't have been a Lycaenidae as the caterpillars were not segmented into different rings and it did not have 3 pairs of sclerotized legs, the two main give aways of Lepidoptera caterpillars. Thanks to tv for finding out what it is. Furthermore, it was an interesting find. I had never seen anything like that before.

[tv]

I've never seen anything like it either. I had mostly forgot about these photos, but was reading through the Marshall book and was completely surprised to see a picture that looked just like it.

[nomad]

This is indeed the strange larvae of the hoverfly genus Microdon, which lives in ant nests. For more info see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microdon and for images of the larvae www.google.co.uk/search?q=microdon+larvae&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwig9euquLPcAhWmBcAKHbjTDIgQ_AUICigB&biw=1167&bih=614

[nomad]

Here is Microdon analis, a UK rarity which I photographed in the New Forest. The adults of this genus are also strange in that they do not hover like the others of the family. They are a small bee mimic.