A bite of lunch

Dragonflies are carnivores and eat all sorts of insects, often eating their smaller prey on the wing.  I saw this rather tatty four-spotted chaser fly up in front of me and return to its perch.  It was only when I looked closer that I realised it had caught a blue-tailed damselfly and was in the process of eating it.

It started at the front end and ate the whole thing.

Here the last bit of the blue tail is about to disappear.

Then time for a rest.

Four-spotted chasers are sometimes caught and eaten by still larger dragonflies such as emperors, something I have yet to see.