Found this on a chain link on a cold autumn day. Don’t think I’ve ever seen anything similar before. My best guess is that some critter deposited eggs for safe keeping. A pretty delicate arrangement but ill conceived in that brothers and sisters alike won’t have much to eat hatching out onto some cold piece of metal.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Those white things on the tiny “stalks” are lacewing eggs. The eggs are on stocks to help stop predators from eating the eggs. Lacewings are small green or brown insects, often seen around lights at night. They hold their wings in a pyramid shape, are about 1/2 inch long. The larvae, which hatch from these eggs, are also about 1/2 inch long, look sort of “wormy” and have 2 BIG (for their total size) pincers that they grab and penetrate small insects with and then suck out the fluids. They are GREAT predators in the garden, orchard and the like. Check out this URL for pictures:
http://bit.ly/uZtmzS
Thanks for the input John. I appreciate the link showing the parents too. Quite amazing, these tiny critters.
j