Subject: Sydney Australia – small, green flat beetle with mandibles
Location: Thornleigh, NSW Australia
December 13, 2015 3:24 am
Awesome website, but I still haven’t identified the bug I found in our cubby house today (looks similar to the tortoise beetle larvae)
At first I thought it was a strange egg sack; but upon further investigation it turned out to be a bizarre beetle: six legs; very strong mandibles that It could support its body weight with while trying to flip over.
Signature: Marty
Dear Marty,
This is the larva of a Neuropteran, and it resembles this Blue Eyes Lacewing larva from our archives. Our research led us to the Save Our Waterways site and this image of the larva of a Green Black-Eyed Lacewing, Myiodactylus osmyloides. Additional images of the larvae from this genus of Lacewings can be found on the Brisbane Insect website.