Category: Learning Outdoors (Page 44 of 63)

Bug of the Week: Another Lacewing Larva

Lacewings are pretty common in Arizona and I found another lacewing larva last week. (Check previous posts about the life cycle of lacewings).

lacewing larva

This lacewing was walking on the silk cocoon of a moth. You can just see the outline of the pale green moth pupa under the white strands of silk of the cocoon. I think the lacewing larva was trying to get inside, without much luck.

lacewing larva

See its long jaws? I think it might be the larva of a brown lacewing, rather than a green lacewing, because it looks a bit different. The brown lacewing adult has brown wings, hence the name.  They aren’t as fragile-looking as the green lacewing and we tend to find them more often in the colder months.

Meteor Shower Saturday Morning

If you are in the western U.S. or Canada, you might want to set your alarm clocks so you can catch the Quantrantid meteor shower. The meteor shower is predicted to be at its peak just before dawn, or 6:00 am Mountain time.

Have you ever watched a meteor shower or seen a “shooting star?” Basically the bits of rocks or dust from a comet that create a streak of light as they burn up in the atmosphere. You won’t be able to use binoculars or telescope, because they move too quickly to follow. A few years ago my family stretched out on blankets (and under blankets – it was cold) in the back of my husband’s pick up truck and watched the sky. What a neat experience.

If you want to find out more about the Quantrantid meteor shower, check SpaceWeather.com.

Bug of the Week: Lacewing Revisited

When we looked for insects today, we found some insect eggs on our lemon leaves. What are they?

Lacewing Life Cycle

Can you see the egg? It is the white oval on the hair-like stalk.

lacewing egg

The insect that laid this egg was featured as “Bug of the Week” early on. It is the beautiful green lacewing adult.

green lacewing
The egg has actually hatched, because it is white and the end is open. The lacewing larva that crawled out probably looks something like this on I found on June 18.
green lacewing larva

When the larva has finished development, it spins a cocoon around itself, forming what looks almost like a spider egg case. In fact, I’m sure a lot of green lacewings are destroyed each year due to mistaken identity.

My son and I found this lacewing cocoon underneath a bird’s nest that fell out of a tree last week.

green lacewing pupa

The green lacewing is a beautiful, beneficial insect that goes through a lot of changes during its life cycle.

For more information for kids, try:

Nature Close-Up – Ant Lions and Lacewings  by Elaine Pascoe


Disclosures: The book was from our local library. Also, I am an affiliate for Amazon. If you click through the linked titles or ads and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. Proceeds will be used to maintain this self-hosted blog.

« Older posts Newer posts »