Punk fly

The first genuine summer weather is upon us, with temperatures approaching 90 and humidity levels in that neighborhood. Of course, the heat wave arrived too late: the lake has closed for the season, so our only refuge is in the house with the air-conditioner on. I'm less than pleased, and sweat-soaked on my forays—I have to give my camera lens time to defog when I first come outside—but the local insects are in heaven. There are cicadas giving their Dog Days calls, and bumble bees singing loudly in the flowers. But on the Garlic Chives blossoms, there was also a species of fat fly, complete with a punk hair-do on its abdomen, joining the fray. I'd seen something similar before, and I'm reasonably sure it's a kind of Tachinid, a group of predatory and parasitic Dipterans that help keep other insect populations, moths in particular, in check. This one could be the Spiny Tachinid (Paradejeania rutilioides), or something similar, and when it's not busy injecting its eggs into suitable insect larvae, which are then eaten from the inside out, the Tachinid visits flowers and drinks nectar. It pays scant attention to sweaty photographers.