Lacewing

How to recognise it

The adult is delicate, pale green, with lace-veined wings and gold eyes, drawn to lights at night. The larva is the famous aphid lion: a flat brown-and-cream alligator shape with huge curved jaws, 6-8 mm.

Mistaken for

The eggs are the giveaway that fools everyone - each sits on the end of a long fine white stalk, like a tiny lollipop on the leaf. People assume it is a fungus or a pest egg mass and rub them off. Some larvae camouflage themselves under a pile of debris and aphid husks, so they look like a walking speck of dirt.

What it eats

Aphids, Whitefly, Red spider mite, Thrips, Mealybug, Scale insects

How to attract it

Nectar and pollen for the adults - the same open flowers that feed hoverflies. Overwintering shelter in hollow stems, log piles and lacewing hotels.

Plants that help

Coriander, Dill, Calendula, Phacelia, Yarrow, Fennel (herb)

Lifecycle

Two or three generations a year. A single larva takes 200-500 aphids in its two to three weeks of feeding, and also eats mite, thrips and small caterpillars.

Months: April, May, June, July, August, September, October

The thing people get wrong

Look for the eggs on stalks. They are one of the most beautiful things in a vegetable garden and they are the clearest sign your garden is working - a plant with lacewing eggs on it needs nothing from you at all.