Because of my new job, I’ve gotten fewer insect shots than I am accustomed to. As a sad side-effect of this, I’ve gotten no woodlouse shots. This is due, in large part, to the fact that I don’t hang out in an environmentally-dubious truckyard with an ethically-dubious canine security staff. (Note: when hiring canine security personnel, make sure that their breed of self interest matches the needs of the job you’ve offered them. Otherwise untended lunches will mysteriously vanish.) I’ve been able to capture a few insects, and quite a number of lichens. Most of the insects captured were flies, and on a particularly warm day (before the onslaught of last summer’s brief heat wave) I captured a rather healthy flesh fly on a distinctly non-fleshy surface. Though flesh flies are renowned for both their opportunistic, moderately carnivorous eating habits, they don’t hunt their meat, so much as they simply…um…happen across it. They’re also distinct among flies in that they’re ovoviviparous; their eggs are fertilized and hatch within the mother’s body and live infants are deposited on sufficiently-delicious and exquisitely-aromatic food sources…namely, meat. Chicago-born flesh flies have developed a particular fondness (it would seem) for fast food remnants, dog droplets, and the occasional open wound. A rather vocal, and “conscientious” faction of the flesh fly population has decided to go vegan in their dietary habits and insist on being called tofu flies. They live in Lincoln Park and in Chicago’s Gold Coast. Though I have it on good authority that the insect people along Chicago’s Gold Coast are recognized as Tourist Flies. The person in question here is…well…a rather cooperative one. I suspect his/her feeding habits are more urban-traditional, as I found him/her posing rather strikingly on the surface of a garbage bag, filled with…well…all of the things that flies find it impossible to resist. I was able to get a number of shots, but this one is the best. Flesh flies are known for their intensely-red eyes and rather fetching stripes. I suspect that people with such voracious habits insist on wearing strips simply because strips are—as everyone knows—slenderizing and flattering to the figure. I learned that from flesh flies. As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you’re all having a great week.