Feathery Purple Insects?!?!

[Anonymous]

When my older sisters and I were kids/teenagers, we used to play with and capture these strange little bugs that lived in our backyard. (This was in the 1980's, in the northeastern USA, FYI.) I have been searching high and low for someone who has also seen these things or even might know a name of them. Okay, here's what they looked like:

Very small, about 1 cm., pale purple/lavender in color, with a wispy, feathery appearance. They also had big black eyes that were noticable. They flew and had little transparent wings. We called them "fairy bugs", to give you an idea of what they were like- very cute!

My mother and sisters also remember them, so I know they weren't just figments of my imagination. If anyone else has seen these things, please let me know as it's been driving me crazy for about 15 years now!!!

P.S. They weren't wooly aphids, in case we have any entomologists on the board

 

[eris1369]

They sound like baby dragonflys...

 

[Polterdog]

I can't say what they were (but the young dragonfly assessment sounds correct -- see picture below).

Hope this helps.

Polterdog.

 

[Anonymous]

I am having trouble picturing thise wispy like appearance you describe. was it a beetle like insect or elongated body? if so it could be a japanese beetle. They are everywhere in the northeast US, and are rather destructive pests hehe.

thats what they look like. lots of iridescence on them and grow to a max size of 1/2" (about 1 cm).
if its not beetle-like, it could be a hymenoptera of some sort in which case you are lucky you didn't get stung :hmph:

as for the dragonfly identification, a dragonfly is a rather large insect, the smallest I know of being an inch long. they also don't live far from water and their young are underwater predators. A damselfly could fit the bill better, but again they have very thin, long, needlelike bodies. They are relatively slow fliers and quite colorful.

hope the pictures helped