Green Lacewing

There are 22 species of “green lacewing” in Florida, spread across a number of families, and the identification key reads like marketing material from the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, reminding me of a quote from Carl Sagan: “Before you can identify a green lacewing, you must first invent the universe…or at least look up the definition of “flagellomere“. Or something like that, anyway.

I am therefore only about 98% sure that this particular green lacewing is a Chrysoperla rufilabris — based more on comparison with images on bugguide.net (a highly reliable forum) than anything else.

Lacewing larvae are voracious predators of common pest insects like aphids, whiteflies, thrips, and scale insects, so lacewings are often used as biological pest control. Young lacewings are so aggressively predatory that lacewing eggs are laid on stalks, so when the young hatch they have a chance of being out of reach of one another.

EDIT: this may be Leucochrysa pavida.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *