mhincz's Favorites

iNat isn't sure of anything, but offers up Rivellia. Everything there seems to have prominently striped wings and dark or banded legs. My little critter has spots or perhaps light/ broken stripes on its wings and nicely golden legs. I used BugGuide's advanced search for Tephritoidea and found nothing to match. Based on the fly guide, I came back down to Platystomatidae for my best guess/ starting place.
Yes, I loaded a lot of pix. This fascinated me and even creeped me out a bit. The mouth reminds me of a scene in one of The Mummy movies where Rick (Fraser) roars at one of Imhotep's mummy priests and it roars back with that impossibly huge mouth. 'Nope!'
Photos 6 & 7 are truly sequential. Compare the abdomen tip to photo 3. Something begins to extend (6) and is more fully extended (7), with some dark liquid deposited on the leaf. Not sure if it's just defecating or maybe ovipositing. Whatever it was up to, it was unusually cooperative with my photo efforts.