Flesh Flies

A pair of flesh flies, family Sacrophagidae, copulating on a fence rail. Click to enlarge. 

I saw these flies on a fence in Brooklyn Bridge Park. I was the only one of hundreds of people there who was watching the flies have sex. It impressed me with how much of the lives of urban critters goes unnoticed, as if they occupy a parallel universe.

Here is a poem by Ethel Jacobsen.

The Insect's World

Insects are creatures with three pairs of legs,
Some swim, some fly; they lay millions of eggs.
They don't wear their skeletons in, but out.
They come in three parts. Some are bare; some have hair.
Their hearts are in back; they circulate air.
They smell with their feelers and taste with their feet,
And there's scarcely a thing that some insect won't eat:
Flowers and woodwork and books and rugs,
Overcoats, people, and other bugs.
When five billion trillion keep munching each day,
It's a wonder the world isn't nibbled away!