Subject: Is this related to a dragonfly?
Location: Dripping Springs, TX
August 23, 2015 9:18 pm
I live in the hill country of South Texas (west of Austin) and saw this while watching my humming birds on the back porch. At first I thought it was some sort of a dragon fly but after a closer look realized it wasn’t but have never seen something like this especially with the fuzzy tail.
Signature: Diana
Dear Diana,
This Robber Fly in the family Asilidae is not even closely related to Dragonflies, but they are both predators that catch prey on the wing, which may have resulted in some evolutionary similarities. We believe your individual is in the genus Efferia, perhaps in the Albibarbis group which is pictured on BugGuide. There are many nice images of Robber Flies from the genus Efferia on Greg Lasley Nature Photography.
Even robber fly larvae are predatory and can be found in leaf litter and around fallen logs devouring grubs and similar creatures. They tend to hang out in my herb bed when my mint and oregano are blooming, because those blooms attract a huge number of flying insects.