I heard this portly fly before seeing it as it issued a loud buzzing at the base of an old fruit tree stump I was about to remove. I figured it had pupated in the stump or in the soil next to it. The stump had been home to at least one Lucan*us capreol*us and I wondered if this beefy fly might be a grub or pupa parasite.

The wings were damaged when I found it and proceeded to be further damaged in its abortive attempts to fly. Only after inspecting the images did I realize what amazingly large, almost flipper-like halteres and tiny "all-eye" head this fly has.