Genus Lucilia
The mountain mint (Pycnanthemum muticum) is just starting to bloom and there was a wasp or a fly or two flitting about. This is some species of blow fly (Family Calliphoridae) and I think it’s in the genus Lucilia. Most people don’t like flies much and I suppose they have good reason.
Still, many of them are beneficial in one way or another, even if that way happens to be helping recently dead things get broken down into a less offensive form. Blow flies are scavengers and lay their eggs in carrion, which sounds nasty but it’s better than having smelly carcases lying around for days.
On the other hand, blow flies are also one of the main families of flies causing myiasis in livestock and occasionally in humans. If you think laying eggs in carrion is gross, you don’t want to know what myiasis is.
