Pacific Spiketail Cordulegaster dorsalis
Pacific Spiketail Cordulegaster dorsalis, female

These are digital images of a female Pacific Spiketail that landed on the leaves of a plum tree in our yard and ate the yellowjacket she'd caught.
Note that she perches using all 6 legs and eats her prey without needing their use!
At the time of this posting, this is new late flight season data for the species in California.
Data: September 19, 2002. Sebastopol, Sonoma Co., CA. [edge between lowlands coastal valley and coastal hills]

picture #5 - eating the yellowjacket


pictue #8 - finishing the yellowjacket


picture #11 - resting nearby (note that she now is clinging to a branch).
It seemed unusual to me that just the leaves would support her well enough while she ate the yellowjacket earlier.

Links to more images of this same Spiketail: picture 1, picture 2, picture 3, picture 4, picture 6, picture 7, picture 9, picture 10, picture 12