Tiny robber fly

I'm so glad I didn't trim all ALL the dead salvia stems today! After supper, I was in the back yard, enjoying the cooler temperatures (not much rain to speak of, alas) and trimming dead foliage. A tiny something caught my eye, perched at the tip of a salvia stem. I pulled out my iPhone and snapped an iNaturalist observation. A robber fly, I asked other observers. 

"Wish you could have made it larger for more detail," commented ericisley, "but we have at least two small robber flies like this in Texas, Hadrokolos texanus and Holopogon snowi. The snowi has more hair than this one looks to have so most likely this is a Hadrokolos texanus."

One of only two kinds in Texas, and ONE'S in our Wildscape? Well, needless to say, I grabbed my digital DSLR camera and headed outside. Sure enough, I found my tiny friend, lurking on another salvia stem, but it took off when I tried to hold the stem still. I returned later and found it again on another stem. This time, I was more cautious with my picture taking. Out of 94 images, I snagged a few good ones. Pretty darn cool, eh?