Here are my latest photos of bugs living on the backs of leaves. The leaves were collected from Peace Park and also Johnson Park on the Greenway.
First some lerps. These are the coverings excreted by the nymphs of small insects that live on leaves. The insects, members of the family Psyllidae, build the lerps for protection. The lerps can be in a wide range of different shapes depending on the species that build them. These ones are fibrous –
In the photo above you can see some tiny orange bugs. Here is a cropped view –
This lerp is made of much finer fibres.
And this one is shell shaped.
And a closer view of a small bug at its base. And note the second smaller bug below that.
This one is lattice shaped, like ones I have photographed before.
And some small bugs –
I think these are scale insects (or made by scale insects?) –
And some tiny red spider mites.
I don’t know whether the round objects are early stages or eggs. The photo below also shows some white mites. Are they discarded moulted shells?
These red mites are very tiny. To the naked eye – they just looks like red dust on the leaf.