What do dragonflies eat for lunch? I stumbled upon this dragonfly earlier in September as it was beginning to enjoy a freshly caught insect. Judging from the long legs and wings of the prey, it looks like the dragonfly is munching on a crane fly.
The dragonfly was so focused on eating that it let me get pretty close without flying away and I was able to take a number of shots from different angles and with different settings. I defer to others on identification of the dragonfly species. I initially thought it was a Great Blue Skimmer, but the eye color seems wrong.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Crane flies fly relatively slowly so I’m sure they’re no match for a dragonfly. Nice shots!
Thanks, Allen. I’m not 100 percent sure it’s a crane fly, but there are some really long legs and I can see wings in some of the shots.
Amazing close-ups. Thanks for sharing.
Nice shots, Mike! 🙂 I saw something strange last month (I have pictures but forgot to blog it); a dragonfly caught a damselfly and ate it. Do you know if that’s normal? I felt it was a bit … cannibalistic?
Thanks. It’s pretty normal for some species (and I have even seen some dragonflies eating other dragonflies).
Really puts a fine point on why a complete eco-system for your garden is so important…Stunning photos.
As the crane fly larvae, leather jackets, are a pest to gardeners I’m quite glad dragonflies eat them. Well captured, if slightly gruesome, shots.
Thanks. Whenever I post a shot of a creature chewing another, I realize that some viewers will find it creepy and, to use your words, slightly gruesome. For me, it part of the circle of life, were predators easily can become prey and all of the creatures have to eat to survice.