I’ve featured Lacewing larvae on here before (The Lacewing lifecycle, 29 September 2021 and More Lacewing larvae, 19 November 2022), but these are the first larvae I’ve seen carrying shields above their bodies, the same camouflage device used by tortoise beetles (also featured here previously: Thistle tortoise beetle larvae, 7 July 2022 and Fleabane tortoise beetle, 8 June 2024).

I couldn’t find any UK information about Lacewing larvae using these shields but I did find a post on the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee website, on their ‘Bug of the week‘ pages, that featured Green lacewings. As well as the following short paragraph, there’s a link to a video, which I highly recommend you watch. It’s brief – around 5 minutes, and includes some excellent video footage of these fascinating creatures:

Some species of Green lacewings have hairy/spiny, “trash-carrying” larvae – larvae that stick debris – and sometimes bits of dead prey – to their backs, creating a shield that they present to aggressors. Does the disguise help them avoid aphid-farming ants? Hide them from predators? Watch this very cool video.