Chrysoperla, Steinmann, 1964

GENUS CHRYSOPERLA Steinmann, 1964 View in CoL

Chrysopa (Chrysoperla) Steinmann, 1964: 260 [proposed as subgenus of Chrysopa Leach ]. Type species: Chrysopa carnea Stephens, 1836 ; original designation.

Chrysoperla ( Steinmann, 1964) : Séméria 1977: 238.

Chrysoperla is widely distributed, but does not occur in Australia or New Zealand ( New 2001; McEwen et al. 2001). Brooks (1994) recognised 36 valid species in four species groups. According to McEwen et al. (2001), “The widely distributed species, in particular, may be ranked among the most widespread and popular predators of small arthropods in many crop contexts.” The larvae feed on aphids and coccids, whereas the adults are thought to feed primarily on honeydew ( Brooks 1994); adults in the genus are known to feed opportunistically as “leaf scrapers” or on pollen ( Sheldon and Macleod 1971, as Chrysopa carnea and the carnea -group). Larvae are naked ( Brooks 1994; Monserrat et al. 2001). Larvae of North American species [perhaps not all] have been described ( Tauber 1974). Adults of all species overwinter ( Séméria 1977; Brooks 1994), and some change colour from green to brown or reddish-brown in their winter phase ( Brooks and Barnard 1990; Henry et al. 2001). In this study, the carnea -group is treated as Chrysoperla carnea (Stephens) , following Tjeder (1960), who reminded us that, in 1957, “the [ U.S.] Department of Agriculture introduced palaearctic Chr. carnea into the United States, releasing numbers of specimens in many states in both the western and eastern parts of the country, as a possible control for the spotted alfalfa aphid. The nearctic population of carnea has thus been mixed with the introduced palaearctic population of the same species and it will no doubt be impossible to state from which of these populations specimens collected in or after the year 1957 will belong.” Research into non-morphological diagnostic methods is still in progress ( Brooks and Barnard 1990; Brooks 1994; Henry et al. 1999, 2001; McEwen et al. 2001; Kluge 2005). Until the carnea -group can be resolved, three Chrysoperla species are here considered to occur in Canada, as follows: