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Thursday, March 12, 2015

Drawn to scale

I imaged this critter waddling slowly across this leaf, but had no idea what it was. Fortunately, a friend on Facebook was able to tell me what sort of creature it was...
Assuming I guessed right and it's related to an Iceryine Scale, I found this by googling the name:

"Those are not legs surrounding the body of these odd insects but a fringe of waxy “fingers” secreted by special glands on the body of the female.

Like many scale insects (along with aphids, psyllids and mealybugs), they produce and excrete a sticky honeydew which ants feed upon and who, in return, provide a fairly formidable protection service.
Learn something new every day...
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