Objective  Diversity of the symbiotic bacteria on Delia antiqua larvae was studied, and effectiveness of two commonly used culture media in isolating them compared.

  Methods   Diversity of the bacterial population on the surface and in the guts of D. antiqua larvae were determined using the high-throughput amplicon sequencing technique. The effectiveness of the LB and TSB media to culture and isolate the bacteria were compared based on the sequencing results.

  Results   The inhabitation bacteria on the larvae were from 115 genera, 66 families, and 4 phyla according to the sequencing. Most of them could not be annotated to species level. On LB medium, 463 strains were isolated that belonged to 29 species, 18 genera, and 11 families, while on TSB, 391 strains from 44 species, 28 genera, and 19 families. TSB isolated more species than LB, and some of the species could be isolated by either method. However, the high-throughput amplicon sequencing revealed that these culture methods could provide only a minute portion of the bacteria population that coinhabited on the host.

  Conclusion  It was necessary to use both TSB and LB media in order to maximize the isolation of all symbiotic bacteria on D. antiqua larvae.