Dear All, while watching a trail of ants walking up the trunk of a tree I noticed a tiny piece of dirt moving among the ants. At first I thought that it was just a stray bit of bark blown in, but a closer look revealed that it was moving purposefully with the ants. It was so tiny that I couldn’t get photos of it with the ants and had to put it on a sheet of white paper to actually see it…
Turning the speck of dirt over reveals that it is indeed an insect wearing a cloak of bits of dirt and bark. Here you can see the legs and body segments more clearly…
Not sure exactly what this bug is or is doing with the ants, but no doubt it is a ‘myrmecophile’ which means an ‘ant-lover’ that lives with the ants and exploits them…
I’m guessing some kind of beetle larva, but I’ve never seen anything like this.
It’s an aphid lion (lacewing larva) carried debris on its back for camouflage.