The Eastern Stinkhorn Mushroom, Phallus ravenelii (no kidding), is a bizarre mushroom that rises up out of rotting leaf litter and wood chips in fall. It has a remarkable fetid odor, like very over-ripe mushrooms, and takes just a few hours to grow up. It falls over and rots by the next day. This one was abundantly supplied with flies of several sorts. Surely they must disperse the spores. Flies were concentrated on the cap:



Small flies, some with two-tone eyes, were the most abundant on the mushroom. These are apparently Flat-footed flies, family Platypezidae. These were possibly genus Platypeza as Brimley (1) lists only that genus for North Carolina at this season (October). This also agrees with seasonal listing for Platypeza at Insects of Cedar Creek, Minnesota. However Jeff Skovington believes these to be Melanderomyia--see comments under other images.



Other associated flies were:

A Greenbottle fly, Lucilia species.



A Vinegar Fly (Drosophilidae, genus Drosophila, sensu lato).



Thanks to Eric Eaton and Paul Beuk for identifications.