Lacewings - Your garden's friend.

Lacewing larva and adult (inset).

The little green insect you occasionally see in your garden - a long body with even longer, finely netted wings, is the scourge of aphids.  The larva is the same, a vicious killing machine that dispatches plant parasites with rapidity, although it looks totally different from the adult form.  So it is with insects that undergo complete metamorphosis.  Butterflies, beetles, and flies all go from larva to pupa to adult in three distinct stages.  

I can remember catching the larva and carrying it back to photograph it in my trailer.  Those jaws you see are not just for show, they have serious pinching power.  It started to dig into my hand and I had to desperately find another way to hold it.  The adults do not have the same tools for destruction that the larva have, but they too are consumers of aphids and their kin.  

So, why the difference?  How is it that the larvae are basically conveyer belts of aphid consumption while the adults lack the same hardware?  The reason is simple.  From egg to pupae, the larvae must eat enough to molt the three times before becoming big enough to molt a last time to pupate.  The adults can also feed, but will not grow any more and have to prepare to mate.  They live anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks; during that time they focus on reproduction.  One female may lay up to 300 eggs.

I don't see many lacewings, larvae or adults, during the year, maybe a couple at most.  I have never found a pupa.  They often attach themselves under a leaf or tuck behind loose bark.  

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com