Nature Photography
Bird, wildlife, and landscape photography by Jon Rista
2 Comments
Comments are closed.
This last Friday, I took a hike up Waterton Canyon. The hike was a mistake, I’m most definitely not conditioned for such things. It wasn’t a total waste though. I managed to get quite a few macro photos of insects while I was up there. One of them was of what I originally thought was a bumble bee of some kind. It was huge…larger than the variety of actual bumble bees that were grazing the same flowers. It wasn’t until I got home and looked at the sucker in full size that I realized it wasn’t a bee…it was a fly. Its head and eyes instantly gave it away as a fly…they all seem to have pretty much the same basic head. Bit in this case, not only was it a fly…it was a GIANT fly…Gigantofly, and probably one of the ugliest insects I’ve ever seen. The first thought that came to mind was Biker Fly…it had that rough, gruff, badass kind of look to it. 😉 Covered in giant, nasty black spikes, hugely fat, lazily cruising around the flowers…Biker Fly. It took a fair bit of investigation to discover it was the, rather aptly named, Hedgehog Fly. The official name is Spiny Tachina Fly, or scientific species Paradejeania rutilioides. Spiny for sure. This thing is one ugly fly.
Comments are closed.
Nature Photography
Teriffic shot Jon, and you’re right, that IS one ugly fly (unless, I suppose, you’re another fly!)
Aye! He’s probably a charmer for sure to all the girl Hedgehog Flies! Big, strong, tough fly…who wouldn’t want him watching over the maggots? 😀