IT'S EASY TO OVERLOOK THIS DENIZEN OF the dark, despite its diaphanous green wings. Only occasionally will this insect come to the light, sitting on a windowpane, before a hint of something unexpected sends them flittering off into the night or simply dropping to the ground and out of sight.
The green lacewing (Chrysoperla carnea) is common and widespread in the UK, a welcome inhabitant of gardens and allotments. As larvae, they are the gardener's friend, on the strength of their monstrous appetite for aphids and other sap-sucking, leaf-shrivelling and bud-blighting pests.
At first glance, the larvae fall somewhere between caterpillar and slug - soft-bodied, lumpy-looking grubs - but up close, the camouflaged body is topped with a mean-looking head, sporting a pair of huge, scimitar-shaped jaws. As it grows, it uses these to end the hopes of more than 600 aphids - grabbing them, injecting them with digestive juices and sucking them dry in a ruthless summer campaign.
This story is from the May 2023 edition of BBC Wildlife.
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This story is from the May 2023 edition of BBC Wildlife.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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