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Porch Tree Cotton
Strange bug alert! New!?
Am I the finder of new bugs, or what? I'm sitting on the back porch when this piece of fluffy white feather/cotton floats down and lands on my leg. Then it starts walking around. I look really close at it. It's very tiny, but I can see little legs, and black dots that may be eyes. I live in Wisconsin. I have a mulberry tree in the back yard.
No, not the white fly, this bug looked like "fluff". No visible wings.
Do you perhaps have a picture of this critter? It's difficult to determine exactly what it might be without seeing the insect itself.
I would guess that it might be one of the varieties of wooly aphid. These plant-sucking insects can exude wax through their cuticle that often forms into fluffy looking white tendrils. These waxy coatings are both a form of waste (the insects pick up too much wax as they feed), and also protects them from predators.
Here's some pictures of wooly aphids:
http://www.inra.fr/Internet/Produits/HYPPZ/IMAGES/7030251.jpg
http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/entfacts/images/woollyaph3.jpg
http://www.lsuagcenter.com/NR/rdonlyres/A89948AA-44D3-423A-8D09-C992EA1A451F/11209/AsianwoolyaphidshivaphisceltiDas13_w200.jpg
There are also other insects, including leafhoppers, and even some types of ladybird beetles that also do this wax exuding trick and look almost the same. I would guess that it might be any one of these.
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