The Neotropical green lacewing genus Chrysopodes includes two described subgenera: Chrysopodes and Neosuarius with 30 and 19 named species, respectively. This paper, which initiates a revision of the genus, focuses on Neosuarius. First, the paper re-defines the suite of traits that characterizes the subgenus; in doing so, it limits the taxon to a smaller, and more cohesive set of species than was included earlier. Then, because most previous descriptions are brief and have no reference to the genitalia, it re-describes and illustrates the adults of species assigned to the newly re-defined subgenus. For each species, it also provides a diagnosis, complete synonymy and list of literature citations, and information on the known biology and distribution. To stabilize the subgenus and reduce nomenclatural problems in the future, special emphasis is placed on the type specimens of all species in the subgenus and their synonyms. Taxonomic changes include: (1) The previous synonymization of Chrysopa krugii Kolbe, 1888 with Chrysopodes (Neosuarius) collaris (Schneider) is reversed, and Chrysopodes (Neosuarius) krugii (Kolbe) is recognized as a distinct biological entity. (2) Five species [C. (N.) apurinus (Navas, 1935), C. (N.) divisus (Walker, 1853), C. (N.) placitus (Banks, 1908), C. (N.) poujadei (Navas, 1910) and C. (N.) karinae Freitas & Penny, 2001] are removed from the subgenus. (3) Three C. (Neosuarius) species are synonymized with previously described C. (Neosuarius) species – jaffuelinus (Navas, 1918) and nosinus (Navas, 1913) with Chrysopodes (Neosuarius) flavescens (Blanchard, 1851), and tristellus (Navas, 1920) with Chrysopodes (Neosuarius) porterinus (Navas, 1910). (4) Three species that were previously designated as “Chrysopa (incertae sedis)” are synonymized with C. (Neosuarius) species – Chrysopa bullocki Navas, 1933, with C. (N.) flavescens (Blanchard, 1851)]; Chrysopa ruizi Navas, 1934, with C. (N.) porterinus (Navas, 1910); and Chrysopa tacorensis Navas , 1934, with C. (N.) figuralis (Banks, 1915). Chrysopa dampfina Navas, 1927, is moved from synonymy with C. (N.) figuralis to synonymy with C. (N.) collaris. Lectotypes or holotypes are identified for all species and synonyms. As a result of this study, the subgenus Chrysopodes (Neosuarius) now contains 10 species in two distinct species-groups: (1) the collaris species-group: C. (N.) collaris (Schneider, 1851), C. (N.) figuralis (Banks, 1915), C. (N.) krugii (Kolbe, 1888), and C. (N.) oswaldi Penny, 2002; (2) the flavescens species-group: C. (N.) escomeli (Navas, 1922), C. (N.) flavescens (Blanchard, 1857), C. (N.) nigricubitus Tauber & Tauber, 2010, C. (N.) nigripilosus (Banks, 1924), C. (N.) pecki Tauber & Tauber, 2010, and C. (N.) porterinus (Navas, 1910).
