Many of these were easily flushed from partially shaded grassy areas in a woodland of Blue Oak (Quercus douglasii) and Gray Pine (Pinus sabiniana) in the gorge of the San Joaquin River, at about 500' elevation in the western Sierra foothills. From a few yards away they look like crane-flies, and they fly like them too...fluttering warily from grass stalk to grass stalk, or seeking refuge in the foliage of shrubs. But a closer view reveals four wings (not two, as in Diptera).

Bittacus typically hang from vegetation by their front legs, as seen here. They have a single, long, raptorial claw on their hind-legs which they use to catch prey.

I believe this is a female, as the males have somewhat enlarged epiandrial lobes or "claspers" at the tip of the abdomen (see image at bottom of this Cal. Acad. of Science page). I can't see evidence of those in the full-size version of the image above. Also, the individual here has a pale venter with a longitudinal brown stripe as does the female in the full-size version of Jeffrey Cole's post(1).

The order Mecoptera is an ancient group dating back to the Permian (250 million years ago). According to Grimaldi & Engel(2) they were very abundant and diverse from the late Permian to Jurassic but their numbers had waned by the Cretaceous. In our time they are a relatively small, but fascinating, order.