Nick Baker introduces us to the green lacewing, a delicate garden insect that sends out a seductive song and duets with its mating partner <\/p>
It\u2019s easy to overlook this denizen of the dark, despite its diaphanous green wings. Only occasionally will this insect come to the light, sitting on a windowpane, before a hint of something unexpected sends them flittering off into the night or simply dropping to the ground and out of sight. Meet the green lacewing.<\/p>\n
The green lacewing (Chrysoperla carnea<\/i>) is common and widespread insect in the UK, and a welcome inhabitant of gardens and allotments. As larvae, they are the gardener\u2019s friend, on the strength of their monstrous appetite for aphids and other sap-sucking, leaf-shrivelling and bud-blighting pests.<\/p>\nHow big are green lacewing?<\/h2>\n
Green lacewing are about 1-1.5cm long<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not hard to see how this insect got its name. The green lacewing\u2019s body is lime green, while their green wings are translucent and intricately veined, which give the impression of lace.<\/p>\n
Look out for the ant<\/a><\/strong>-proof eggs of lacewings. They are laid near aphid colonies, but to avoid the attentions of the ants that attend them, they are positioned teetering on the tip of a long, extruded thread. Each lacewing will lay several hundred and larvae emerge from the eggs after three to six days.<\/span><\/p>\n At first glance, the larvae fall somewhere between caterpillar and slug \u2013 soft-bodied, lumpy looking grubs \u2013 but up close, the camouflaged body is topped with a mean-looking head, sporting a pair of huge, scimitar-shaped jaws. As it grows, it uses these to end the hopes of more than 600 aphids \u2013 grabbing them, injecting them with digestive juices and sucking them dry in a ruthless summer campaign.<\/p>\n After emerging from its silken cocooned pupa, the more refined and delicate-looking adult lacewing imbibes pollen and sweet liquids, such as nectar<\/a><\/strong> and honeydew<\/a><\/strong>. Then it will seek out a mate \u2013 and this is where it gets fascinating.<\/p>\n Lacewings have ears, or rather, two kinds of sound-receptive organs. The first is found in the wings, but they also have them in their legs. Nothing unusual so far, as crickets, grasshoppers, cicadas and many more insects have similar devices. The difference is that lacewings are famously noisy creatures. They \u2018sing\u2019 to each other, and sound plays a significant part in their lives. It\u2019s part of a secretly sonic world, out of human listening range, where body parts become instruments, and insects, such as our lacewing, use the resonance of plant fibres to broadcast their music. The sound made by a lacewing goes by the lovely name of tremulation.<\/p>\n When a lacewing tremulates, its abdomen jerks rapidly up and down and parts of its body rub against each other. The insect orchestrates these vibrations into pulses of low-frequency sound that can travel effectively through the air or a dense tangle of undergrowth, announcing their presence to other lacewings.<\/p>\n Males initiate tremulation, and if a receptive female hears this, she will respond with a similar pulse of sound. Eventually, they will start a duet, with the female filling the gaps between the male\u2019s pulses. This is a vital part of the courtship; mating doesn\u2019t happen without it.<\/p>\n Scientists studying these tremulations have noticed that green lacewing have different \u2018songs\u2019 in different parts of their range. One in particular, found in the lowlands and the south, has been described as \u2018motorboat\u2019, with \u2018slow motorboat\u2019 found in the uplands and the north. It is thought that the owners of each \u2018sexual signature tune\u2019 belong to different species, with their songs acting as an isolating mechanism.<\/p>\n We are only beginning to understand what this means for the actual number of species in the UK and the places they can be found. To date about 20 species of lacewing have been identified by song alone. However, unless you have the equipment to hear them singing, they can only really be referred to as a member of the green lacewing complex.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> Green lacewing larvae<\/h2>\n
What do green lacwing eat?<\/h2>\n
How do green lacewings mate?<\/h2>\n
More by Nick Baker<\/h4>\n
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