Unidentified Debris-Carrying Larvae

Trash "bugs"

10 spp. in our area are known to have debris-carrying members (9 for the entire genus)

1. Abachrysa (single species)

2. Ceraeochrysa (all species)

3. Chrysopa (C. slossonae uses wool from the wooly alder aphid; C.quadripunctata are only occasional debris-carriers)(1)

4. Chrysopodes (single species)

5. Eremochrysa (all species)

6. Kymachrysa (all species)

7. Leucochrysa (all species)

8. Nothochrysa (single species)

9. Pseudomallada (all species)

10. Yumachrysa (all species)

Green lacewing larvae have tubercles with protruding setae (or hairs). Species that carry a debris packet have a shorter, broader abdomen, hooked setae, and long, scoli (the spines associated with holding a debris packet).(2) So far, only a few images of debris-carrying green lacewing larvae on BugGuide have been identified past family:

Kymachrysa intacta

Leucochrysa sp.

Leucochrysa insularis

Leucochrysa pavida

See Green Lacewings for general information on this family.

It seems that the trash carried by the larvae of several species confers some protection against predatory lady beetles.

Naked green lacewing larvae have a longer, narrower abdomen, unhooked setae, and no long scoli.

Chrysopa sp.

Chrysoperla carnea-group

Chrysoperla comanche

Chrysoperla externa

Chrysoperla rufilabris

Meleoma sp.

Brown lacewing larvae lack tubercles with setae and have proportionally more slender, elongate bodies than any of the green lacewing larvae. Brown lacewings are naked larvae and thus lack any sort of scoli. They also have shorter mandibles.

Hemerobius sp.

Micromus sp.

Catherine Tauber, M.J. Tauber, & G.S. Albuquerque (2014). Debris-Carrying in Larval Chrysopidae: Unraveling Its Evolutionary History. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 107(2):295-314 (Full Text)