"Adult Green Lacewings have a number of defenses, among them a chemical stench they emit from special glands situated in their thorax. One component of the compound is skatole, well known as one of the smelly substances in mammal feces. It is presumed this odor deters predators. [1] I have never personally smelled anything while photographing them, but I'm not physically attacking them, either, and they don't have reason to discharge their stink bombs.
Lacewings face danger when in flight, chiefly from bats and spider webs. Both male and female Chrysopids are acoustically sensitive to the frequencies used by bats in echolocation, and are able to take evasive action while being pursued.
They also have a strategy for escaping spider webs: they are so light that when they blunder into a web, they often do not create enough vibration to alert the spider. Then, instead of struggling as most insects do, the lacewing carefully works itself out by biting through the strands holding its legs and antennae. Then, when it is stuck only by its wings, the creature become completely immobile, letting gravity do all the work. Slowly, the lacewing will slide downwards out of the web. It is able to do so only because the tiny hairs on the wings prevent the sticky spider silk from actually contacting the wings' surface."
