InsectNet forum

I am usually pretty good with insect identification, but this one had me mystified. I stumbled onto it quite literally when I walked by a stack of lemons we received from a neighbor, and I noticed a piece of what appeared to be black debris that was moving. I stopped and watched it for a moment as it slowly crawled down the side of the lemon. When I leaned forward to look at it more closely, it froze (stopped moving). During the time I went to get my camera, it moved more, but had stopped moving again by the time I approached it to take a photo.

We are in the California desert, but the lemons came from a tree in the Long Beach/Los Angeles area. Entirely uncertain what I am looking at here, so I figured I would post it for identification. The photo shows two views, one as-photographed on left (arrows showing direction of movement) and a closer photo that has had its contrast enhanced. The night time photos were not ideal. Specimen has been bagged and boxed (with lemon) for later info.

Any suggestions appreciated.

It's the larva of a Green Lacewing, which carries debris as camouflage / protection -

https://extension.sdstate.edu/green-lac ... landscapes

https://bugguide.net/node/view/140

Thanks, that is certainly it. We have a few invasive species out here, so when I see something odd, it goes in the ziploc. I put it outside and took a few more photos, it grew rather quickly during its two days in the bag, although it may also have lost some of its debris ball.

These are 'good guys', they eat the pests on the Citrus plants.

Adam.

I returned it to the outdoors that day, put it out under some bushes on its lemon so it could explore at its leisure. It quickly wandered off. Thanks again for the information.

Jim