These were on a tropical hibiscus- the size of large ants, but they moved/acted more like aphids. Never seen them before in TX zone 8

These look a lot like what I found on my tomatoes, squash, and melon plants--too late for them--last year. The onese I saw were bright red, though. When I did a search just now, I discovered a few different bugs look like these as nymphs, including assassin bugs, leaf-footed bugs, and stink bugs. I hope someone else knows for sure.

Check out the links. Looks like yours Paul, are Large Milkweed bug nymphs but it doesn't hurt to compare.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...
http://yardfarmaustin.com/leaf...
I had these on my blueberries last year & the nymphs are soft bodied so I used some Murphy's Oil soap with a drop of dishwashing liquid & some alcohol in a spray bottle, fill it up with water, shake & spray on the creatures. You will have to rinse it off before the sun fries the leaves so choose your time of day to spray.


http://bugguide.net/node/view/...

Be careful of what you try to eradicate. What you have are assassin bug nymphs, these will eat other bugs.

You can usually tell a predator by it's ability to run, they have to be able to catch their prey.

http://bugguide.net/node/view/...

It's actually surprisingly difficult for me to tell which is which. This is what I saw today, which was an assasin bug nymph: http://www.google.com/url?sa=i....

Perhaps a different species than Paul's...? It was a bright blood red and black, not orangey at all.

Nymphs change a lot as they develop, a good indication of what is an assassin bug or not is the length of the legs, you will notice Paul's have long legs, good for running. There's a lot of species so they will naturally differ.

Ah. Thank you, Janet. I do appreciate your tip, as well, since I've seen a few of these out there. I killed one before I knew better.

Look like leaf footed bugs(stink bugs)- both in appearance and the fact that they were "bunched" together before I disturbed them and they started to scatter. Thanks for everyone's suggestions and help!