Beneficial Insects in the Low Desert
Green Lacewings

Scientific name: Chrysopa spp., Chrysoperla spp.

DESCRIPTION: Adult Green Lacewings are pale green, soft bodied, insects about one inch long with shiny golden eyes. They have four wings which each have many veins, which gives them the netlike or "lace" appearance. When in flight they may resemble delicate moths. Lacewings lay their pale green oblong eggs on the tips of threadlike stalks attached to plants. The immature lacewings hatch within a few days. Lacewing larvae are reddish cream in color and are tapered in shape like tiny 1/8 inch alligators. They have distinct legs, and have prominent mandibles used to consume their prey. When the larvae mature they form a yellow silken cocoon in which to pupate. Green lacewings are generalist predators and are commonly found in agricultural, landscape, and garden habitats. Adults often fly at night and are seen when drawn to lights. The genus Chrysoperla, which is reared for release for bio-control, has predatory larvae, but adults only feed on nectar. There is a another genus, Chrysopa, which has an odor associated with it and the adults are as voracious a predator as the larvae, in fact the adults eat each other. It is possible for Green Lacewings in the genus Chrysopa to have mandibles capable of biting people.
BENEFITS: In the larval stage lacewings are ferocious feeders, and consume large numbers of a wide variety of small insects including aphids, whiteflies, thrips, mealybugs, psyllids, mites, small caterpillars, leafhoppers, as well as moth and other insect eggs.
HOW TO ATTRACT: Give lacewings and other beneficials a chance before applying insecticides which may kill the beneficials as well as the pests. Tolerate a small pest population, think of the pests as dinner for the beneficials.

Images are used with permission from: Entomology Department at the University of Nebraska -Lincoln

For additional information and images see: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/NE/green_lacewing.html

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