Dark feather-legged fly, Trichopoda lanipes

For a number of years, I've been hooked on flies—real flies, a.k.a., members of the insect order Diptera, not, as would be expected in a retired person, trout flies. (Alas, I don't fly fish.) And among my favorites are the members of the genus Trichopoda, which are better known as the Feather-footed flies on account of their most obvious field characteristic: the fringe of what looks like fine feathering on the fly's hind legs. The hairs are thought to resemble the pollen baskets of a bumble bee, and entomologists believe that this mimicry helps the trichopod interact without fear among its bee neighbors, with whom the insect shares flowers. This handsome, dark-winged and -bodied dipteran is known to scientists as Trichopoda lanipes, and, while it nectars, it's on the lookout for squash bugs, on which she will lay her eggs that, when they hatch, will tunnel into the bug—sustenance for the next trichopod generation... a handsome method of natural pest control.