Other Common Names
Golden-eye, Golden-eyed Lacewing, Golden-eyed Green Lacewing (often erroneously applied as a species common name)
These names may cause confusion that this species may be identified by eye color. This is far from the case as this is typical throughout the family. Globally, these names often are instead applied to
any member of Chrysopidae, not to one particular species. See the Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America
(1) and
Merriam-Webster.
A more appropriate common name might be "common golden-headed green lacewing" or "common gold-headed green lacewing". This trait also shared with species like Chrysopa incompleta, C. pleuralis, Leucochrysa pavida, and some Yumachrysa, though these are primarily less common species.
Quite a number of common names were applied by the early taxonomist Asa Fitch to this species and its synonyms. These include: eye-marked golden-eye (C. oculata), yellow-headed golden-eye (C. chlorophana, C. xanthocephala), white-horned golden-eye (C. albicornis), disagreeable golden-eye (C. illepida), o-marked golden-eye (C. omikron), yellow-cheeked golden-eye (C. fulvibucca), Mississippi golden-eye (C. mississippiensis ), and two-dotted golden-eye (C. bipunctata).
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Select synonyms are included below. Many of the names have alternatively been represented as full species or as forms and varieties of Chrysopa oculata Say 1839.
Chrysopa oculata Say, 1839
=Chrysopa chlorophana Burmeister, 1839
=Chrysopa euryptera Burmeister, 1839
=Chrysopa latipennis Schneider, 1851
=Chrysopa albicornis Fitch, 1855
=Chrysopa bipunctata Fitch, 1855
=Chrysopa fulvibucca Fitch, 1855
=Chrysopa illepida Fitch, 1855
=Chrysopa mississippiensis Fitch, 1855
=Chrysopa omikron Fitch, 1855
=Chrysopa xanthocephala Fitch, 1855
=Chrysopa transmarina Hagen, 1861
=Nothochrysa annulata MacGillivray, 1894
=Chrysopa assimilis Banks, 1899
=Chrysopa mexicana Banks, 1901
=Allochrysa annulata (MacGillivray, 1894)
=Chrysopa separata Banks, 1911
=Chrysopa rubicunda Navás, 1913
=Cintameva chlorophana (Burmeister, 1839)
=Cintameva oculata (Say, 1839)
=Cintameva conspersa Navás, 1929
=Chrysopa conspersa (Navás, 1929)
=Leucochrysa (Leucochrysa) annulata (MacGillivray, 1894)
Explanation of Names
Chrysopa oculata Say 1839
oculata = from the Latin
oculus meaning "eye" (apparently refers to the golden
structural color found throughout the family Chrysopidae)
Identification
Adults
C. oculata can be distinguished from other species by the following combination of characters: the frons has a darkly coloured ring around the lower or lateral margin of the base of the antenna; the antennal bases have reddish markings above are not separated by an x-shaped mark as they are in
C. chi; on the antennae the scape is dark and the basal third of the flagellum is pale; the vertex typically has four spots; there are small spots on the pronotum; the lateral groove of the vertex near the eye margin is completely pale without dark streaks as in
C. pleuralis.
(2)
Left to right: C. oculata, C. chi, and C. pleuralis
Larvae
The head capsule is marked with 3 spots, much like
C. chi and
C. nigricornis. Within the eastern part of its range,
C. oculata can be distinguished fairly readily from other species in the genus by the entirely pale lateral tubercles on the thorax. In both
C. chi and
C. nigricornis, the third set of thoracic tubercles are darkened. The first abdominal segment lacks tubercles, unlike
C. nigricornis. The first set of lateral tubercles on the abdomen, which are on the second segment, are darkened. The following are pale colored and only darkened above.
(3) A color photograph appears in Tauber et al. (2014), Fig. 1C.
(4)
Range
most of NA
(2); our commonest species of the genus
Habitat
meadows with low vegetation, trees, fields
(2)Season
most abundant in late summer
(2)Food
Aphids, mites and soft-bodied arthropods.
It is an important predator of spruce gall aphids in the Lake States
(5)Life Cycle
Click on either image to see the entire life cycle
Third instar larvae generally overwinter as cocoons.
Remarks
Valued as biological controls.
This and other members of the oculata group produce strong smelly substances. As a result, members of this group are sometimes referred to as "stinkflies" or "stink lacewings".
