Unpredictable insects

Unpredictable insects

Posted on: 19/09/2011

Monday September 19th 2011
I have all sorts going on at the moment but thought these beautiful creatures were worth sharing. There are various species of green lacewing but usually their eggs are rounded. I found these tiny pointed eggs ( the pods are nearly two millimetres long) on a dry grass stem and watched them for a full two weeks before they hatched. One of the downsides of finding eggs in the field is that obviously you don't know when they were laid. Hatching could occur within days or weeks so there is no option but to be patient. Insect eggs do tend to become more transparent as the time approaches so it's not as if you have to have your nose glued to them all the time. But once the change begins to occur, you do have to be vigilant.

This is a single shot. The larva second from the right began hatching first and I expected to get at best a couple of hatches in the same shot. It was an amazing thing to watch, as all of them began hatching within an hour of each other. They remained, clinging to their empty eggs for nearly twenty four hours before disappearing into the foliage in search of food.