Lacewing Larva
Okay, so this is the same bug from yesterday. It amazes me that sweet and pretty lacewings come from such a scary-looking larvae.
It was barely 3mm long; I couldn’t even see the jaws until I blew up the photos. Over at bugguide, they mentioned that lacewing larvae are voracious predators. I’m not sure what they eat, but it looks like they wouldn’t have any trouble bringing prey down.
I think those are eyes at the base of the jaws? Creeeeepy.
As this one patrolled, it held its head up high and its jaws spread wide. I think the little hairs along the jaws are triggers. This bug’s entire mode of operation is to walk along, bump into something, and eat it.
So much for being on an even keel again with posting.... completely overwhelmed IRL right now.
AJ said,
July 20, 2008 @ 8:50 pm
Lacewings: The ugly ducklings of the insect world.
Matthew Smith said,
July 20, 2008 @ 9:58 pm
GYAAH!
tceisele said,
July 21, 2008 @ 7:00 am
Well, so far, we’ve got two kinds of neuroptera that have analogs of their grubs in the movies:
- Ceti eels (lacewing larvae[1]) go in your ear and make you susceptible to suggestion.
- Sarlaccs (antlion larvae[2]) catch you in their sand pit and digest you over a thousand years
Now we just need a good movie that uses either larval or adult dobsonflies as monsters, and we’ll have pretty much a clean sweep of the threatening-looking neuroptera!
[1] Well, OK, not quite, it has some antlion-like characteristics
[2] Even more not quite, what with the tentacles and all, but at least the pit is a good analogy (if kind of large)