Thanks, Star! Sometimes I get lucky, and my craptastical camera phone works well, lol. I was actually surprised the pics came out so clear, since it's generally hit or miss. I think its neat that even the speckles on his legs show up. Rhizo - Shoot, I was going to put "katydidy" into the title of my post too, but it was too long! That was the 3rd and last of my guesses as to what this guy was, since last year, I remember spotting one, but I couldn't remember what he looked like. I know he hung around for about a week, and then I never saw him, or any friends of his, again. This is the only one I've seen so far this year, so if he wants a snack, he can have one, as I have enough foliage to spare, and apparently katydids aren't vectors for any diseases. Yay - a little garden buddy!

ramazz, no it wasn't yours but that one is sure pretty, very unusual. It was a photo by the side of a house with two large patches of PS and some other flower. They weren't exactly like my photo either as to double. Kind of a double decker effect except the top part was the same size as the bottom. That's how I remember it anyway, and often my memory plays tricks on me. If I can find that thread again, I'll link to it, too far back now. token, one person's trash is another's treasure. I know photos can only show us so much, but I find yours rather interesting, not that I'd run right out and grow it. Expecting something different may skew your perception of it, but I'd let it grow another year and see what it is like. I think it's kind of pretty actually, certainly different. Nice assortment of flowers and plants in your photo. But if you have your heart set on a nice cherry brandy, I'd hope to get some seeds from posters who have the prettiest ones or just try something else. But before you shovel prune it, maybe somebody on freecycle would want it or gasp, somebody here might want some seeds from it. Or a plant hybridizer. Look at what you've got, something truly unique even though not to your liking. If it were crossed with other ones, it could lead to some stunning new Rudbeckia. A grower might even be interested in it. I don't know if white has even shown up in Rudbeckias before or not, and the potential for crosses, good bad and ugly are endless.

Since this is not a photo of your actual insects and the insect in the photo is much larger than a grain of salt, identifying your insect will be impossible without further information. (The stray bits of pollen on the petals above are in the size range of salt grains) It would take a lot of these tiny insects ganging up on your melons all at once to have a negative effect. I lightened your photo by increasing the gamma and saw what could be pollen grains on the wing covers, so the insect in the photo could actually be beneficial to pollination.

I don't see whitefly but lots of fat aphids and their discarded exoskeletons (molts). I'm wondering if the winged insects are winged aphids and if the lone black critter might be a parasitic wasp. They can really help control the aphids.