Glenn
Thanks for the great photo and the ID!
Yes, it is the debris-carrying lacewing larvae. Amazing the camouflage they use to sneak up on aphids!
These are very beneficial insects for the garden. The larva eat lots of aphids and other pests like caterpillars on cabbage, potatoes and other plants in the garden.
The adults are lacy looking green flying insects. They also feed on pest insects but do not eat as much as the growing larvae. They can give off an unpleasant odor when handled.
Here are photos of lacewing larvae -
http://bugguide.net/node/view/72302/bgimage
Here are photos of the adult lacewings - http://bugguide.net/node/view/140/bgimage?from=0
more by: Glenn
Oh, yeah, it is the larval stage of the lacewing fly.
Insect Identified by: Glenn
I found out later that this is an aphid lion, or aphid wolf. I did find one other picture of this bug with the debris on it's back, and that was explained to me that it was for camoflage. This information was provided by Phil Pellitteri pellitte@entomology.wisc.edu (a really nice guy).
