AI or Alien?

These days in this AI world it is hard to determine if a photograph is real or just some computer-generated image. And sometimes when you actually see something it’s still hard to believe it exists.

The Common Cassinia (Cassinia aceulata) on the property are in full flower and the insects and arachnids are flocking to them. The flower heads are festooned with beetles, spiders, moths and flies. One beastie that has turned up that I have never seen before is pictured below, a Small-headed Fly (Ogcodes sp.). As the name suggests the head looks small when compared to the rest of the body giving it an otherworldly hunched-back appearance. It almost looks AI-generated.

And if the looks aren’t weird enough the lifestyle is like something out of Alien the Movie. The Small-headed Fly is a parasitoid of spiders meaning its young prey on spiders for food. But rather than lay the eggs on a paralysed spider as is the case with wasps the adult fly deposits the eggs in the vicinity of spiders. When the eggs hatch the larvae (maggots) actively hunt down any nearby spiders, climb up their leg and bury themselves in the spiders body where they continue to grow. Less AI and more Alien.

I think the answer to the title question is a bit of both.