Appearance
The adults reach 10–12 millimetres of length, with a wingspan of 25–30 millimetres. The basic coloration of the body is green. Wings are blue-green with black veins. They turn pale yellow during the winter. Several black markings are present on the head, the thorax and below the abdomen. The second antennal segment is black. This species is rather similar to ''Chrysopa dorsalis'', showing an oval pale spot between the eyes, which is roundish in ''C. perla''.
Distribution
This widespread species is present in most of Europe and in temperate zones of Asia.
Behavior
Adults can be encountered from May through August. They are fearsome predators, primarily feeding on aphids, occasionally on flower nectar.The females usually lay eggs near aphid colonies. Larvae are predators, mainly feeding on Aphididae, Coccidae species and caterpillars . The adult insects hibernate in winter.
Habitat
These insects prefer cool and shady areas, mainly in deciduous woods, wet forests, woodland edges, hedge rows, scrubby grassland and shrubs.References:
Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.
