quinacridone

Some 'scales' or marks will be the plants version of a scab, where it's been damaged and has 'scabbed' over, the insect scales do look a bit more 'stuck on' and 'foreign' as in not created by the plant, if that makes sense? They can also be picked off, and the appearance is different to the plant surface.

I'm currently fighting scale insects on one of my houseplants (I think I'm winning), the adult females form the scale, and the nymphs/larvae are 'crawlers' (little white, woolly lines about 1-2 mm long), both can be physically removed by scratching them off, but the scale is tougher and water runs off it

This has some pictures of scale insect pests, and they look very different to plant tissue (and don't forget, they proliferate very quickly, so tend to show up in large, noticeable groups). Another thing is that the surrounding plant tissue will look yellowy/stressed when under attack instead of it's usual healthy, normal green

From wikipedia

They're quite small, the females are often flightless and without limbs, they conceal themselves under domed scales for protection. They like to suck the sap from plants, some ant species will 'farm' them for the honey dew they secrete. Some species are pests and can infest and damage the plants they feed on, while others can be used commercially....checkout one of my other posts here The oldest fossils found date to the early cretaceous.

You're welcome and thanks for the feedback!

I'm going to do a 'mega post' or smaller of the cordiceps that infect insects over on awwnverts probably this coming week

They're fascinating things in a somewhat horrifying way, and lots of lovely photos to be discovered!

Some additional photos

Photo by Jonathan Jensen-Lynch

Photo by Jonathan Jensen-Lynch

Photo by Jonathan Jensen-Lynch

Photo by Daniel Mary

I did not know that

One of the issues about finding interesting things on the internet is that I only speak English, and a smattering of very poor French and Italian. When I come across things like this to post I have to trust that it doesn't translate to 'I'm a horny MILF who fucks vegetables' or something similar...but I imagine most people posting photos of owls, insects and mushrooms won't be slipping that sort of info in their usernames and write ups (I hope)

Buffy The Fish Owl 🧛‍♀️

I like this, who's the artist?

It's like night and day lol

He's a little cutie isn't he?

Was going to say Game of Thrones, really atmospheric

I can't wait for the day you win this competition, I just want to see what kind of bat-shit challenge you're going to come up with