Haven't seen one of these since I lived on Long Island, 23 years ago!

I've been jealously guarding the health of my milkweed plants since they were decimated last year by a groundhog, so I inspect them several times a day.

Earwigs have always creeped me out because they appear suddenly when I'm least inspected them. I just learned that they eat aphid larvae! I guess I'll treat them with more respect now. The pincer-like appendages, on the stomach, are used to fend off predators.

Yesterday, I saw a new creature that looked like trouble and removed it, along with a couple of others, only learning afterwards that it was a voracious aphid eater. My bad. They were syrphid fly
larvae.