An Unusual Find

Recently in my garden a small movement on a leaf caught my eye. On closer inspection I could see what appeared to be a very small clump of moss and other debris moving around. As ever, I grabbed my camera to take a closer look and realised that I was looking at some sort of larva which had placed debris on its back, presumably as a means of camouflaging itself. Following a bit of research, and drawing on the brains of the folk at the website Wild About Britain, it became clear that this was a Lacewing larva. Apparently Lacewing larvae feed on aphids and regularly camouflage themselves in this way in order to hide from the ants which often protect groups of aphids (the ants feed on the sugary honeydew produced by the aphids).

This individual was very small, only around 5mm in length, and didn't hang around for long so I only managed to take a few frames. I used my MP-E 65mm macro lens.  

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