It is also called the aphis lion.
Aphis, you know, is the same as aphid, or plant louse. In other words it is the plant-louse lion.
Ah, yes; you are quite willing it should devour the aphids.
And it does. It is very fond of them, though it will also devour any unlucky insect it is strong enough to overcome.
It has a terrible appetite, this child of the pretty lacewing.
It would even eat its brothers and sisters before they hatched out of the egg if it could get at them.
The pretty lacewing knows what an appetite her ever hungry larvæ will have, and so she protects them against each other.
Clever little mother! she lays the eggs in such a way that the larvæ that hatch out first cannot devour the rest of the eggs.
How do you think she manages it?
Here are some of her eggs on this leaf.