Tag Archives: neuroptera

Zeñon

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Green Lacewing
Green Lacewing

The last of the 26 bugs caught was this green fly with long wings.

Results

Prior to blasting the sequences, a tree was generated to get a rough idea of the relatedness of these bugs. There were 2 leaves on the same branch with no branch distances. We thought we made a mistake and that we submitted the same sample twice. After BLAST, we thought we definitely sent in the same sample twice. But the image search and comparison revealed that this was the adult version of Croissant! This was identified as a Chrysoperla rufilabris.

Croissant

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Chrysoperla rufilabris larva
The legend who started it all. Croissant was found by the students during lunch in the park. At that point, we decided to do a DNA barcoding project. Under the microscope, it clearly looked like some proto-insect. So we decided it was a larva and would only know of what species if we barcoded it.

Results

Croissant was identified as a Green Lacewing of the species Chrysoperla rufilabris (EOL). So he had to be a larval form. These larva are great for pest control because they eat other nuisance insects in the garden. Unknowingly, the group captured an adult later on called Zeñon.