Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various neuropteran insects of several families, especially Chrysopidae and Hemerobiidae, having predaceous larvae and, in the adult, two pairs of delicate, many-veined wings and long antennae.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as lace-winged fly.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) Any one of several species of neuropterous insects of the genus Chrysopa and allied genera. They have delicate, lacelike wings and brilliant eyes. Their larvæ are useful in destroying aphids. Called also lace-winged fly, and goldeneyed fly.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of several gauzy-winged insects of the families Chrysopidae and Hemerobiidae.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of two families of insects with gauzy wings (Chrysopidae and Hemerobiidae); larvae feed on insect pests such as aphids

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From lace +‎ wing.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word lacewing.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • It lays its eggs vertically on the underside of a leaf; they look like sixties architecture in psychedelic green.

    April 13, 2009