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Photo#1227487
Unidentified Lacewing (F)? - Nothochrysa californica - female

Unidentified Lacewing (F)? - Nothochrysa californica - Female
Bellevue, King County, Washington, USA
May 22, 2016
Unidentified lacewing, side view, laying eggs (one appears visible from lower rear abdomen possibly?)

Images of this individual: tag all
Unidentified Lacewing ? - Nothochrysa californica - female Unidentified Lacewing (F)? - Nothochrysa californica - female Unidentified Lacewing (F)? - Nothochrysa californica - female

Neat find...but maybe not ovipositing (nor a female) here?
I can't see evidence of egg-laying in the photos here...in particular, I don't see any eggs visible near the lower rear abdomen.

A typical lacewing egg is a somewhat oblong blob deposited at the end of a filamentous stalk:

   

I do see some fine hairs along the margin of the leaf...but they lack any terminal egg-like blobs. And I think those hairs are associated with the fine marginal teeth of the salal leaf (e.g. see this salal leaf image).

For interests sake, a detailed account of the oviposition behavior of N. californica is given in Toschi(1965) (it begins at the last paragraph of the left column on pg. 428 therein). The account there does mention that eggs are laid along leaf margins (but, again, I see only salal leaf "tooth-hairs" here rather than eggs). It's described as a somewhat time-consuming process (i.e. for the stalk to harden before the female lets go of the egg).

Also, I'm guessing it would be unlikely for an unmated female to oviposit here (i.e. I don't think Nothochrysa are parthenogenetic), and mated females of N. californica typically have a pale "blob" attached to the surface of their abdomen...see comments under the post below:

 

 
Thanks
Thanks for the detailed explanation. I obviously misinterpreted small white spots on the leaf for eggs, but now know what to look for!

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

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