Wasp?

Awesome response to yesterday’s Blue banded bee flight shot, thankyou all for the enthusiastic comments, stars and hearts, most appreciated.
 
When I see an unusual wasp sitting on a leaf, that is very interesting, the monopod is snapped out double quick and the camera springs into action. When I pull up the focus, see the short antennae with the arista hair sticking out and then see the halters (drum sticks) sticking out, well this now escalates to exciting. The cause for the excitement is that this is actually a fly pretending to be a wasp.
 
We see lots of examples of insects mimicking wasps, not just flies like the hoverfly, but moths, beetles, in fact just about every class of bug has an example of a wasp mimic. The reason, of course, being that wasps are dangerous. Other than specialists, bug hungry spiders will think carefully before tackling a wasp. The same goes for other notorious bug hunters, like mantids.
 
Being a typical 58 year old kid, I have put wasps in with spiders and mantids, purely in the interest of science, to see what occurs. Generally, the mantid or the spider moves as far away as possible while the wasp aimlessly buzzes around. The spider and mantid actually get in a bit of a panic when the wasp comes too close. It appears that the wasp is unaware of the presence of the spider or the mantis, but they are, in fact wasps have particularly good eyesight.
 
Generally the spider and mantis win, but not always, but the action does not happen until the light of day is long gone. You approach the tank in the morning to find a fat spider, a few waspy husks on the floor and a smear of white goo sprayed across the glass.
 
This particular fly struck me as a hunter, as it followed with some gusto as a small fly flew too close.
 
As for identification, this is going to be difficult. The markings on the wings and the way the fly sits with its head up and wings spread, is very much like an anthrax type fly. Anthrax tend to be dark, dowdy colors, so we need to step up a level in the classification of insects before beginning the search. Wiki tells me that anthrax is genus level, moving up a couple of stages, anthrax belongs to the family of bombyliidae, these are commonly known as the bee-flies, which is all making good sense.
 
Unfortunately you are never going to know the answer for sure, because the chances of me finding a result in the next hour are extremely remote and that is all the edit time that the new Haemorrhoid Blip will allow me. The result will however, be published on other bug sites that I frequent. Yours and blips loss, not mine.

Update - Tephritidae Bactrocera cucurbitae, melon fruit fly - many thanks to Mollyblobs in helping me nail this one :)

Regarded as one of the real bad boys of the insect world, causing fruit crop devastation. Originating in India, it has spread world wide, wherever these fruit crops are grown; gourds, melons, mangos etc.
 
Dave