What IS that?

This morning, I was chatting with Mom on the phone when I happened to notice an interesting insect crawling up the outside of our dining room window. Hmmmm. "I'll check your blog later and see what it was!" Mom said before we hung up.

By the time I returned with my camera, the insect had climbed up under the window's middle section. I unlocked the latches, opened the window and hung out while I snapped this photo. Gabe, one of our boy cats (whom I do not talk about on this blog because it's really not cool to have domestic cats in a Wildscape....but, OKAY, might as well confess to three), was heading toward me. Darn it! And double darn it–the insect flew off.

In the meantime, I'd been e-mailing with Dr. John Abbott, curator of Entomology at the Texas Natural Science Center (and author of the upcoming Texas Damselflies: A Field Guide) so I shot him the image and asked what he thought it might be. "Looks like a maybe a Tephritidae (true fruit flies)," he offered. "I thought maybe at first a Pyrgotidae."

Time to post the image at Bugguide.net and get some more input. "Looks like Delphinia picta (Ulidiiae) to me," commented Bjoern Rulik. 

By George, I agree! My mystery insect is a picture-winged fly!! Cool cool cool!