Graduate Student Tennessee State University Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Green lacewings (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) are important natural enemies of soft-bodied arthropods such as aphids, thrips, mites, scale insects, mealybugs, and their eggs in many agricultural cropping systems. Lacewing larvae are voracious predators. They play an important role in the integrated management of arthropod pests (IPM). In general, green lacewings are predatory in their larval stages. In contrast, there are some green lacewing species that adults are predacious. Genus Chrysopa and Chrysoperla are the two most important genera of green lacewings in the family Chrysopidae. We investigated the life history characteristics of two North American green lacewing species, Chrysoperla rufilabris Burmeister and Chrysopa oculata Say (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) in the laboratory. The parameters evaluated were developmental time, survival, reproduction (fecundity and fertility), sex ratio of emerged adults, and longevity of adult males and females. There were both similarities and differences in their life history characteristics of C. oculata and C. rufilabris. This information will provide some of the first information on the life history parameters of C. oculata.
