Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Class: Insecta
Subclass: Pterygota
Order: Neuroptera
Suborder: Hemerobiiformia
Family: Hemerobiidae
Genus: Micromus.
Common name: Brown lacewings, Aphid lions
Lacewings are beneficial insects.
Adult lacewings have 2 pairs of wings and chewing mouthparts. They hold their wings over their backs when they are not flying. As the name suggests, the wings of these insects are lace-like, with a dense network of veins and cross veins. There are two common families of lacewings green lacewings (family Chrysopidae) and brown lacewings (family Hemerobiidae). Like all insects, lacewings have 3 body parts, 1 pair of antennae, and 6 legs. insects.
Lacewing larvae are voracious predators with long legs that enable them to move quickly to grab prey. They are predators of aphids, insect eggs, and other arthropod prey. They have long, sickle-shaped mouthparts which suck fluids from their prey.
Both the green and brown lacewing adults are also predators and feed on the same prey as the larvae: aphids, insect eggs, etc. Lacewing adults do not fly very well.
A brown lacewing with a 7 mm body length.
A lacewing 5 mm larva commonly called an antlion
Thanks to Wikipedia for text and information: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
