Mallada sp.
Most lacewings (also) feed on plant material, such as pollen. Particularly green lacewings (Chrysopidae) such as Mallada boninensis, Mallada astur and Mallada signata are mainly predatory and very effective. They are relatively small (length up to 1.5 cm, including wings). Adults are active during the night, and may be attracted by flashlight. A female lacewing may plant over 100 eggs on plants infested with aphids. These eggs hang on a thin 1 cm long stalk, most often under a leaf. The eggs hatch within 4 days. The larval period lasts 12 days, and the pupal period lasts about 9 days. Adults live just one month. One may commercially rear millions of green lacewings for biological control of mango pests.
One may buy millions of lacewings (as captive-bred eggs) for biological pest control, as reared for that purpose in many countries. The larvae of most species of lacewings are specialised predators that eat aphids (and coccids such as mango scales, and caterpillars). These larvae sway their heads from left to right, and back, until they strike something they can eat. They have mouthparts that can pierce and suck the aphids. Many (adult) lacewing species also feed on nectar and pollen, but particularly Chrysopidae (eg Mallada signata, Mallada boninensis) are mainly predatory (one adult may eat 15 aphids per day). One may attract Chrysopidae by planting crops that attract them (mainly Asteraceae and Apiaceae), such as calliopsis (Coreopsis), cosmos (Cosmos), sunflowers (Helianthus), dandelion (Taraxacum), dill (Anethum) and angelica (Angelica).
Mallada boninensis; This green lacewing is an effective [1] generalist predator, feeding on mealy bugs (Mani and Krishnamoorthi, 1987), white flies (Selvakumaran et aI., 1996), bollworms and aphids (Kabissa et al., 1996) and on nymphs of Aphis gossypii, Aphis craccivora and Rhopalosiphum maidi [2], blackflies, psylla and leaf miner. Green lacewings are recommended for the integrated pest management programme (Nehare et al., 2004). M. boninensis feeds well on Corcyra cephalonica eggs[3] (laboratory host) C. cephalonica can be mass reared on Jowar along with groundnut, streptomycin, vitamin complex, Na and K salts.
