Asilid, Bumblebee mimic

Laphria posticata. A lot going on here, at least for me, first there is a wonderful aesthetic contrast between the mounds of black clay and the robber fly; the crispness of the angled wings and the just imperfectness of the bilateral symmetry combined with the mirroring of the yellow hairs on the thorax in opposition to those of the abdomen. There is also a sadness to know that our group killed this beautiful fly, but that without that death we would know little to nothing about these and other insects that still run the show in most parts of the world...it's almost funereal...or perhaps allegorical, you can see the pressure ridges of Dejen's fingers on the clay that made the cradle for the robber fly. Probably shouldn't write these accounts just before going to bed....Stack and presentation by Dejen Mengis. Part of the Adirondack ATBI BioBlitz. Doug Inkely has branded this with the following Celebrity Name: F16Heavily armed, take-off lights on, antennae up, and ready for take-off! Photography Information: Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash in Styrofoam Cooler, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200 USGSBIML Photoshopping Technique: Note that we now have added using the burn tool at 50% opacity set to shadows to clean up the halos that bleed into the black background from "hot" color sections of the picture.