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MEXICAN PLANTS & ANIMALS HOME
Excerpts from Jim Conrad's
Naturalist Newsletter
from the February 14, 2016 Newsletter issued from Hacienda Chichen Resort beside Chichén Itzá Ruins; limestone bedrock; elevation ~39m (~128ft), N20.675°, W88.569°; central Yucatán state, MÉXICO
TRASH BUG
Volunteer Insect Identifier Bea in Ontario, as she's been called many, many times in this Newsletter, came to the Yucatan last week. She's been staying in the hut, spending her days having fun with our bugs. The other day she called me to see something undefinable walking across a heliconia leaf next to the door.Below, you can see the minuscule thing:
We've run across something like this before, though a different species. For example, in Kentucky in 2006 we saw what's shown at www.backyardnature.net/n/a/trashbug.htm.
It was a trash bug, the wingless, predaceous larva of a lacewing insect. You can see and read about lacewings on our Lacewing Page at www.backyardnature.net/n/a/lacewing.htm.
Lacewing larvae camouflage themselves by attaching almost anything small, loose and dry, including the sucked-dry remains of their prey, to the tops and sides of their bodies. The one in Kentucky bore tiny flakes of lichen, but you can see that our hut-door one wears parts of its victims' bodies. I can make out parts of wings, legs, and what looks like a caterpillar "skin" or exoskeleton.