Well, I've narrowed this tee-e-e-e-e-ensy bug to the order Hemiptera (true bugs) and family Tingidae (lace bugs), but that's as far as I've gotten. It's on a small sunflower plant/weed and you can see the soft but spiky-looking texture of the leaf for a subtle size comparison. My guess is that is was only a few millimeters long.
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hello. i'm a county commissioner in norwood, colorado, and involved in weed management. i've had a number of lace bug predating on canada thistle on my property, and have recently contacted other weed managers who've seen this same phenomenon -- lace bugs doing serious damage to canada thistle. not sure if it's this same lace bug. but i will print this out and check with my bugs.
Neat, thanks! I always like to identify bugs as thoroughly as possible.
Another insect that I saw a few years ago eating a thistle was a group of between 30 and 50 large, darkly colored beetles (half an inch or more). They were consuming the whole plant very quickly. They also were making a clicking noise loud enough for me to hear five feet away. I don't know if it was eating, mating, or a defensive noise. Any ideas? I haven't seen them since, but I haven't actively searched either.
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