Parasitic fly [Thelaria species]

Parasitic fly [Thelaria species], a photo by Peter Orchard on Flickr.

You may not like them but you can't ignore them! Come the summer flies make themselves known to all of us one way or another; climbing our windows, buzzing round our heads, some even biting us.
I doubt many of us actually like flies as, like rats, they are connected with spreading disease and that hatred is passed down from one generation of humans to the next.
This genus, thelaria, are particularly troublesome in some parts of the world carrying disease and parasites around people and, more frequently, cattle. The 260 or so species we have in this country are not such a problem, they are just an irritation.
What I find amazing is that to separate and classify these insects you need to examine them under a microscope as wing venation and genitals can be key to species identification. This one flew off shortly after being photographed, it may have thought I was a scientist looking for a positive identification and wanted none of that, thank you very much!