Meet an unidentified species of a green lacewing larva. Awhile ago, I was outside, filling up a water can, when I spotted this little bugger, scooting along on the brick wall of our house. Strange looking, right? Look closely above, and you can barely see a pair of mandibles, poking out from beneath the debris on its back. According to Charley Elseman on Bugguide.net, "Those mandibles act as a syringe, sucking the prey dry, which is how they sometimes end up with intact (but shriveled) aphid bodies stuck on their backs." And apparently, other kinds of dead stuff as well....
Earlier this year, I wrote about the evergreen bagworm, another epitome of weirdness. If you want to know more about this moth larval stage that uses another kind of debris as camouflage, check out "Bag of Worms," which was published in the January 2010 issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine.
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