Tasmanian brown lacewing
The Tasmanian brown lacewing is a small insect with a brown body and clear, lacy wings with little spots. It comes out at night. Gardeners love it, because it gobbles up aphids.
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Fun facts
It has babies all year round and can keep going even when it is only 5 degrees warm.
The mother lays tiny white eggs on plant hairs or even spider webs, right next to the aphids her babies will eat.
In the daytime both the grown-ups and the larvae hide. The larvae hide at the bottom of plants.
It has lived in New Zealand since at least 1869 and has even reached faraway islands there.
It is probably the most common lacewing in Australia and New Zealand.
Most asked questions about Tasmanian brown lacewing
?What does the Tasmanian brown lacewing eat?
Aphids and other tiny plant bugs, and nectar from flowers.
?Is the brown lacewing good for gardens?
Yes. It eats aphids, which are pests on garden plants.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Micromus tasmaniae
- Group
- Other insects
- Family
- Hemerobiidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Neuroptera > Hemerobiidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania
Where the facts come from
- Micromus tasmaniae (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Geoffrey Cox. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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