A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Chrysopidae
Aphid Lion is the larval stage of the Lacewing at first glance, it´s a fungus at the edge of a tangerine leaf, but suddenly you see that fungus has legs and walks quickly, always at the other side of the leafs or behind something. After some time, I got a picture of it´s head, with two sharp mandibles. Hummm . Then I took a closer look at the mess that it keeps in the back and realized that there are thousands of bodies of other animals, skeletons of animals that it hunts.
my tangerine tree
the craziest hair design I´ve ever seen
3 Comments
Nice "discovery" !
Kristal you are correct... Its called Aphid Lion or Lacewing larvae.
http://ausgarden.com/garden/good-garden-...
Some species of Neuroptera larvae cover themselves in lichen, debris, and even dead prey insects for camouflage. That's probably what this critter is, especially with mandibles like that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroptera