GREEN LACEWINGS: Chrysopidae

ADULT: Soft bodied, usually green insects with transparent wings held roof-like over and extending past the end of the abdomen. Top of the thorax often with a splash of a lighter color. Copper or golden compound eyes bulge outwards from sides of head. Antennae are hair-like and are usually as long as body. Wings have many veins forming cells that generally run diagonally to the wing axis.

EGG: White, narrow, oval eggs are produced atop thin, white stalks many times the length of the egg found singly or in groups. The egg darkens just before the larvae emerge. Larvae emerge from eggs in 3 to 5 d.

LARVA: Elongate, somewhat flattened body with large tubercles on the sides of swollen abdomen, and many long hairs on thorax and abdomen.  Lavae have three pairs of true legs.  Body various colors from yellow to brown with dark and light patterns across the body. Head and neck area are not elongate as in brown lacewing larvae. Mandibles are sickle-shaped and produced straight out from front of head. There are trumpet-shaped pads between the claws at the end of each leg. Larvae complete development in 10 to 14 d when supplied with a constant food supply at 72 degrees F.

PUPA: Larvae pupate in a ball shaped silken cocoon often under leaves of the plant or in leaf trash. Silk is produced from glands at the end of the abdomen. Adults emerge from pupae in 10 to 12 d at 72 degrees F.

GENERATION TIME: 23 to 27 d, depending on species, temperature and food supply.

HABITS: Adults and larvae are usually predacious. Larvae feed by sucking the body fluids from eggs and small soft-bodied arthropods.