#common green lacewing

[butterflybreakfast]

common green lacewing i saw the other night at my boyfriend’s house !! 💚🪲

☆ fun fact: adult common green lacewings have built-in "ears" at the base of their wings that allow them to hear the ultrasonic echolocation calls of bats, so they can fold their wings and drop to the ground to avoid being eaten.

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

Common Green Lacewings: these tiny insects pupate in loosely-woven cocoons that measure just 3-6mm (about 1/8 to 1/4 inch) in diameter

The lacewing spends about 5 days maturing in its cacoon, then cuts an opening in the top and emerges as a fully-developed adult.

The larvae of the green lacewing (family Chrysopidae) are also known as "aphid lions," due to their skill/appetite when it comes to hunting aphids. They're widely used in agricultural contexts to help eradicate pests, because they are voracious predators that also commonly prey upon caterpillars, leafhoppers, planthoppers, thrips, spiders, mites, and insect eggs.

As it nears the end of its larval stage, a lacewing will spin a small cacoon out of silk and then tuck itself inside, allowing the pupal phase to begin. Its tiny green body is often partially visible through the thin, loosely-woven walls of the cacoon.

These breathtaking photos of a lacewing climbing out of its cacoon were taken by a Danish photographer named Frederik Leck Fischer.

When the lacewing first emerges from its cacoon, its wings are still compactly folded down against its body.

The wings then gradually begin to expand until they have reached their full size, which usually takes about an hour or two.

Fischer's photographs provide an excellent account of this entire process.

Sources & More Info

University of California's Integrated Pest Management Program: The Green Lacewing

Texas A&M's Field Guide to the Insects of Texas: Green Lacewings

Washington State University: Lacewings

Tennessee State University: Fact Sheet on the Green Lacewing (PDF download)

Pacific Pests & Pathogens: Green Lacewings/Biocontrol

[onenicebugperday]

@polymoth​ submitted: I found this strange green pal in my room earlier, and iNat suggested it was a common green lacewing. Since we're not in that bug's native range, I killed it (humanely) rather than releasing it. But now I'm wondering--what kind of guy do you think this is? No worries if the picture is too indistinct, it was a very small (~1/2 inch) bug. Found in Portland, Oregon

Yes, it looks like a common green lacewing. I would strongly advise against killing bugs based on internet IDs and google searches. Common green lacewings are those in the genus Chrysoperla and they are certainly native to your area and also found all over the world. Their larvae are extremely effective pest control for insects that feed on plants, so they’re super beneficial to have around. Even if it were non-native, that doesn’t automatically mean it’s invasive and harmful.

[dansnaturepictures]

28/08/2020-Common green lacewing, Stock Doves, Common Tern, interesting skies and more at Lakeside and at home 

I took the first picture in this photoset with my macro lens at lunch time of a lovely common green lacewing on our kitchen ceiling. A fantastic green insect to see with its see through wings I find it really nice and enjoyed taking a photo of it. At lunch time it was a classic will I won’t I in terms of if I went for a walk, where and for how long with it quite showery. In the end I waited until the shower stopped to go out but it did rain a bit again when out at Lakeside. I took with me just my camera and with one lens on and my binoculars, phone and a coat, and I went for my macro lens as it was already attached by that point having photographed the lacewing. I soon regretted not taking my big lens as when I walked down the path taking you to the lakes I got my best views yet of a regular group of to me quite special Stock Doves I’ve been seeing at Lakeside the past month or so a very exciting thing for me here so close to home. In the field that they frequent I got pretty close and with my big lens it would have been by far my best chance to take a picture of one at Lakeside so far a bird I did photograph last year in the New Forest. I kicked myself for not having my big lens and only the macro obviously with no zoom its a closeup lens so not appropriate to capture them with. Alas when I considering taking a shot in their direction with the macro and doing a super crop when I got home to salvage something they flew of. But it was just nice to have those views and its been a nice journey with these birds these last few weeks. When I first saw them it was an “I believe those are Stock Doves type thing” but I seem to have seen them better and better as time has gone on and to get really nice stationary views of them on the ground in my binoculars was fantastic today. 

On the lens decision I do have to say though, I took a couple of pictures this lunch time with my macro lens that had I come with only my big lens I would not have captured as well and would have rued not bringing my macro lens. So on a day it was pretty wet on the walk and I wanted to protect my photography kit by not bringing it all in the bag but just the one camera and lens to shove under my coat with my binoculars around my neck if needs be its swings and roundabouts. The first of those pictures was the lovely great willowherb flower in the second picture a flower I have seen a lot at Lakeside this year I believe but only just learnt through seeing someone else tweet a picture of one so I was very happy to take this photo. The willowherbs a key strand now of my year of delving deeper into flowers. As I walked around the lakes it really started to rain, I took the third picture showing this and fourth that other macro one that could perhaps only have been with the macro lens of some nice black berries growing on a tree over the lake by the bridge. Just before that though, whilst I have photographed them nearly every day for the past few weeks, I would have had a good opportunity to photograph the Great Crested Grebes and chicks which I saw pretty close to the side of the lake but it wasn’t meant to be. 

Just before I went out for a second walk this evening after work I took the fifth picture in this photoset of a sky scene out the back what with the changeable weather again today I saw and photographed lots of special sky scenes today a notable thing about the day. The sixth, seventh and eighth pictures in this photoset I took on the walk featured a nice sky heavily or were of the sky. It was a walk where we had our fair share of rain as well. 

As I approached the lake a delightful sight greeted me when I saw a Common Tern flying over the lake and watching it for a good few minutes it dived to fish and did this several times over beach lake the main one and the lake behind it which was special to see. There was a second with it, two youngsters I could see here. A walk around to the lake behind it revealed an adult also spectacularly hunting many times above the Great Crested Grebe family which was lovely too. It turned out there was one adult and two juvenile birds later on sitting on the buoys on beach lake like where I had seen my first of the year from the other side in April that I could see. Like but obviously the opposing end of that spring sighting; these were ones passing through I believe as I have known terns here before this year but they are not one of the regular birds here a little bit inland and modest sized multi-used lakes really in an urban area, so these will have been passing through on the return migration for the autumn I believe but nice to even have a scrap of habitat here to host these birds I mostly see at the coast and big inland water bodies. So it had come full circle for me in 2020. Most of all it was stunning to watch them glide and dive over the water to the backdrop of the delicious sky scene of the sun just about poking and glowing through thick and dark clouds. A simply beautiful scene which I loved seeing. 

With my big lens with me for this walk in case I could see the Stock Doves again - I didn’t but this is a good future exercise walk mini project to aim for - I tried to capture the Common Terns in fight. I’d had it a bit with the light at that time with it still feeling a little dark as my crucial moving subjects setting blurred everything I captured. I then with them flying quite close overhead I love photographing terns and have had a strong last few years for it, decided to go for broke a bit and just switch it back to my auto sometimes the settings on the camera don’t cope well in low light but auto always gives you what you need. Harder to get this shot though as I didn’t have the fast shutter speed all of a sudden but I just about made it work for a flying picture I tweeted on Dans_Pictures from tonight. I also took the ninth and tenth picture in this photoset of a Mute Swan and one of the young terns. What a brilliant evening with these birds, a perfect way to start the bank holiday weekend, have a great a safe one all. 

Wildlife Sightings Summary: Two of my favourite birds the Great Crested Grebe and Buzzard, Common Tern, Black-headed Gull, Mallard, Mute Swan, Moorhen, Woodpigeon one that I photographed yesterday morning out the back that sat there for ages was back again a similar time this morning in the sun again, Collared Dove, Stock Dove, Robin, House Sparrow, Staring, Magpie, Jackdaw, a very small bird in the tree near to the berries I didn’t get a very good look at it but either Wren or Goldcrest the latter I’ve not seen for ages, common green lacewing and wasp. 

[reblogsomedarkness-blog]

Common Green Lacewing by MrZardoz on Flickr.