Emergent Fly

Igor Siwanowicz, famed macro photographer, has sent me along some of his recent work.

head swells as it emerges and then shrinks down to normal proportions (He has taken to raising flies as mantis fodder, and has noticed that the flies use a "hydro-pneumatics-based procedure to push themselves out of the pupa." The fly'shmm, the benefits of having an inflatable head...). I do something similar when taking off my too-tight jeans. It's equally unattractive.

Note the wrinkly, as-of-yet unhardened wings of the emerged fly. Stretch those wings, little fly. You'll only have a short while before a mantis dines on you.