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Tandem flight behaviour?

Not the best photographs, but just enough detail to make out the flies in this close group of around 20 individuals (seen on Chislehurst Common, Kent, ~1.5m off the ground beside an oak) are carrying an object. In some cropped images it looks like another smaller individual and in one it looks held facing backwards.

Is this some form of  display / mating ritual?

Any thoughts on this behaviour and likely group appreciated.

Thanks

Kevin

Comments

The fly doing the carrying is an empid - the last picture clearly shows the typical long proboscis. Empids are predatory, and the males of many species are known to capture prey and present it to a female as inducement to mating. This could be what's happending here, or the fly might just have been hungry!