When I started having problems with scale on a few plants (my gumbo limbo in the front yard, and my firebushes both in front and in back), I also started noticing tiny green lacewing eggs here and there. In fact, I even took a few photos, and by now regular readers of this blog are probably pretty tired of hearing about how I wish more lacewings would show up and get to work.
Well, this should be the last post in that vein, because at long last I found an adult lacewing and, wonder of wonders, it held still enough on this very windy day to allow me to get a respectable image. It’s not good enough to ID to species level (Florida has 22 species in 9 genera, according to Entomology Circular 400 [no longer available from the Fl Dept of Ag & Consumer Services so I’ve updated the link to the UF/IFAS Featured Creature page for green lacewings]), but it is at least close to pretty:
I love the bright green body, the filmy, transparent wings characteristic of the “nerve-winged” order, and the golden eyes. Get to work, lacey!