A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1469 entries
lacewing
A lacewing is a slender green or brown insect with large clear wings held in a tent over the body, veined so finely that the whole wing reads as netting. The adults are weak, fluttering fliers that come to lit windows. The larvae are the reason gardeners care: They are fast, flat, and armed with hollow sickle jaws, and a single one can take several hundred aphids before it pupates.
Etymology
The English name is for the wings and needs no explanation. The scientific name for the order is Greek for net-winged, which says the same thing, and the green lacewing’s genus name means golden-eyed, for the metallic bronze shine of the eyes in a living insect that goes dull the moment it dies.
Notes
Lacewing eggs are laid on stalks. The female touches her abdomen to a leaf, draws out a thread of quick-hardening fluid an inch or so long, and puts the egg on the end of it, which keeps the first larva to hatch from eating its siblings. Some lacewing larvae camouflage themselves by piling the drained husks of their prey onto their own backs.