Chrysopa is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of green lacewings in the insect family Chrysopidae

Chrysopidae

Green lacewings are insects in the large family Chrysopidae of the order Neuroptera. There are about 85 genera and 1,300–2,000 species in this widespread group...

 in the order Neuroptera

Neuroptera

The insect order Neuroptera, or net-winged insects, includes the lacewings, mantidflies, antlions, and their relatives. The order contains some 6,010 species...

.

Members of this genus and the genus Chrysoperla

Chrysoperla

Chrysoperla is a genus of green lacewings in the insect family Chrysopidae in the order Neuroptera. Therein they belong to the Chrysopini, the largest tribe of subfamily Chrysopinae....

are common in much of North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

. They share similar characteristics and some species have been moved from one genus to the other and back again. Their larvae are predatory

Predation

In ecology, predation describes a biological interaction where a predator feeds on its prey . Predators may or may not kill their prey prior to feeding on them, but the act of predation always results in the death of its prey and the eventual absorption of the prey's tissue through consumption...

 and feed on aphid

Aphid

Aphids, also known as plant lice and in Britain and the Commonwealth as greenflies, blackflies or whiteflies, are small sap sucking insects, and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea. Aphids are among the most destructive insect pests on cultivated plants in temperate regions...

s and members of this genus have been used in biological pest control

Biological pest control

Biological control of pests in agriculture is a method of controlling pests that relies on predation, parasitism, herbivory, or other natural mechanisms...

.

William Elford Leach

William Elford Leach

William Elford Leach FRS was an English zoologist and marine biologist.Leach was born at Hoe Gate, Plymouth, the son of a solicitor. At the age of twelve he went to school in Exeter, studying anatomy and chemistry. By this time he was already collecting marine samples from Plymouth Sound and along...

 first described this genus in 1815 in Brewster's

David Brewster

Sir David Brewster KH PRSE FRS FSA FSSA MICE was a Scottish physicist, mathematician, astronomer, inventor, writer and university principal.-Early life:...

 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia.

Species

• Chrysopa abbreviata
• Chrysopa chi Fitch
  Asa Fitch
  Dr. Asa Fitch Dr. Asa Fitch Dr. Asa Fitch (February 24, 1809 – April 8, 1879. His early studies were of both natural history and medicine, which he studied at the newly formed Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 1827. However, in 1838 he decided to start studying agriculture and...
  
  , 1855
• Chrysopa coloradensis Banks
  Nathan Banks
  Nathan Banks was an American entomologist noted for his work on neuroptera, megaloptera, hymenoptera, and acarina . He started work on mites in 1880 with the USDA...
  
  , 1895
• Chrysopa dorsalis
• Chrysopa excepta Banks
  Nathan Banks
  Nathan Banks was an American entomologist noted for his work on neuroptera, megaloptera, hymenoptera, and acarina . He started work on mites in 1880 with the USDA...
  
  , 1911
• Chrysopa formosa
• Chrysopa incompleta Banks
  Nathan Banks
  Nathan Banks was an American entomologist noted for his work on neuroptera, megaloptera, hymenoptera, and acarina . He started work on mites in 1880 with the USDA...
  
  , 1911
• Chrysopa intima
• Chrysopa lezeyi
• Chrysopa nigra
• Chrysopa nigricornis Burmeister
  Hermann Burmeister
  Karl Hermann Konrad Burmeister was a German zoologist, entomologist, and herpetologist.Burmeister was born in Stralsund and became a professor of Zoology at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg from 1837 to 1861...
  
  , 1839
• Chrysopa oculata Say
  Thomas Say
  Thomas Say was an American naturalist, entomologist, malacologist, herpetologist and carcinologist. A taxonomist, he is often considered to be the father of descriptive entomology in the United States. He described more than 1,000 new species of beetles and over 400 species of insects of other...
  
  , 1839
• Chrysopa pallens
• Chrysopa perla
  Chrysopa perla
  Chrysopa perla, the 'Green Lacewing ', is a species belonging to the family Chrysopidae subfamily Chrysopinae. This widespread species is present in most of Europe....
  
  
• Chrysopa pleuralis Banks
  Nathan Banks
  Nathan Banks was an American entomologist noted for his work on neuroptera, megaloptera, hymenoptera, and acarina . He started work on mites in 1880 with the USDA...
  
  , 1911
• Chrysopa quadripunctata Burmeister
  Hermann Burmeister
  Karl Hermann Konrad Burmeister was a German zoologist, entomologist, and herpetologist.Burmeister was born in Stralsund and became a professor of Zoology at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg from 1837 to 1861...
  
  , 1839
• Chrysopa slossonae Banks
  Nathan Banks
  Nathan Banks was an American entomologist noted for his work on neuroptera, megaloptera, hymenoptera, and acarina . He started work on mites in 1880 with the USDA...
  
  , 1924
• Chrysopa viridana