Staying in the lab is tough when you live in the sunshine state. I mean, at SUNY Geneseo it was easier- the lab served as a warm refuge against those Western NY winds and clouds. So every once and again I’ll find a break in the Floridian sunshowers and bring my work outside. However, as any biologist can tell you, work is impossible outside because you always get distracted by some cool critter crawling by your laptop. Case in point: last time I tried this I noticed a little pile of moss moving across the table…
… so of course I flipped it over…
…and found legs! (Woah, I need to find out what this is.) Further investigation revealed impressive mandibles and a set of sticky spines:
It looked very similar to an antlion, which is the larval form of a certain family of lacewing. Antlions are awesome in their own right, they form little trenches in the sand and eat ants that fall into their trap. I teach an intro bio lab on the spatial distribution of organisms, and I always take the students outside to hunt for antlions (they are typically (spoiler) clumped together in sandy spots under the eaves of buildings). And I always show this video:
Anyway, it turns out that critter I found was also a larval lacewing! Certain species have sticky spines on their back that trap debris and help the larva blend in with their environment. This isn’t a new tactic- scientists have found a 110 million year old larval lacewing trapped in amber that has fern trichomes stuck on its back. How cool is that?! (Another spoiler: very)
And such is the curse of the biologist- go outside to write and in minutes you are a few Wikipedia pages deep classifying insects.
Vincent Cannataro, Ph.D. 