I vote crane fly. Should not be a danger - adults mate and die - don't even eat. Adult The main goal of the adult crane fly in the spring is mating. During the adult stage, the crane fly does not eat. For the short 10- to 15-day period, the adults mate on plants or in the air near the water. Afterwards, the female deposits her eggs. When mating and egg distribution is complete, female dies. The male only lives up to 15 days as well. It is true that the early stages of the creature's development can be a lawn problem: http://lakewhatcom.wsu.edu/gardenkit/unwantedpests/cranefly.htm Here is a link that might be useful: THE LIFESPAN OF A CRANE FLY

That is not a lady bug. It is a Leaf Beetle (Lema trabeata), not a beneficial insect.

Can't tell what the top is... it looks like some sort of fly pupa. The bottom, on the other hand, are mealybugs that need to be destroyed! Put out some ant bait out while you're at it since they protect the mealies. -Tom ::EDIT:: Yeah, the bottom is cotton cushion scale, oops. Either way, they're bad!

I found a survey on the Smithsonian Web page and reported it. Not sure if it adds to the survey or not. If they are interested, I guess they will contact me... In a video on that site, they claim the easiest way to kill it is to freeze it. Since we have an extremely late frost, maybe they propagated and will now be killed off naturally but I wonder how many made it into my house already.