Underside of lacewing larva - unusual viewpoint

[Bruce Williams]

Stony Stratford, Bucks. 3rd September 2010.

I though some of you may be interested to see what these odd creatures look like from the underside.

I wish I could tell you that I "just came across it" in this unusual position (but then who would believe me ). Well the truth is I used a leaf to flip it over - because I was curious to see what it looked like underneath. Anyway I can tell you - if you want to get a photo you'll have to be really quick as they can turn their self right way up in no time.



This is is what they look like right way up (different larvae):







Bruce

[JRsbugs]

Really interesting Bruce! I saw one within the last month hunting on Ivy, it was a devil to get anything decent! But then it was crawling amongst the flowers and had a victim buried behind a head of flowers which I didn't see until I downloaded the pics.

Look in your last pic, along the front edge I'm sure there's at least three parasitised aphids. You can see heads with little antennae.

I wonder how they get all that debris off their spines, maybe they don't, just change their skin.

Janet

[Bruce Williams]

Interesting point Janet - my guess is that they moult with their camouflage intact (see next para for why) and have to start over building their pile of debris from scratch.

Similar point - I've no idea how they fix all the various bits on their back? What I can say for certain is that everything is very securely stuck on. I found this out as it was quite a difficult task trying to flip the larva (in the first photo) over and if any of the bits had been loosely fixed they would have come off for sure.

I'm sure you're right about the aphid husks - see this close-up:



Bruce

Point of grammar: Apparently it's "themself" not "their self".

[BloomingMarvellous]

They look very different naked.

Funny how I've never seen one of these until this year and now I can find them so easily.

[JRsbugs]

I don't think they are just aphid husks Bruce, look at the one on the left with moss on it. You can see something inside. Actually, they look more like miniature pigs than aphids.

[Bruce Williams]

BloomingMarvellous - Yes and they're much easier to spot when naked. Here's one I took in 2008 with just it's briefs on:



Janet - Yep you're right there is something inside isn't there ....and I think the one on the right could actually be a miniature pig - maybe I should post it on the mammal forum .

Bruce