Resumen

Berchmansus is a small Neotropical genus in the green lacewing tribe Leucochrysini; its larvae and biology are unknown. Adults of Berchmansus adumbratus Navás were found in samples from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Upper Amazonian forest canopy project; these samples came from palms at each of two widely separated Peruvian localities. The same samples also yielded specimens of an unusual leucochrysine larva. For a variety of reasons, we conclude that the larvae are likely conspecific with the adults. If our reasoning proves correct, they would represent the first reported larvae from the genus Berchmansus. Their anatomical features are consistent with either specialized trash-carrying or a naked lifestyle. Here we describe the larvae, and because they have many attributes not previously reported from leucochrysines, we reevaluate the suite of larval features that characterize the tribe. Our analysis illustrates that in both larval morphology and perhaps trash-carrying habits, the tribe Leucochrysini displays a much broader range of variation than previously recorded.