North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Ginda Fisher <ginda@concentric.net>]

This evening, I looked at my young Jonathan apple, and noticed that the 
underside of one leaf was about half covered with tiny gray eggs.  The 
leaf was otherwise healthy.  the eggs adhered somehow to the hairs on 
the leaf.  There was a tiny spider hanging out with the eggs.  Most of 
the eggs were intact, but a few were black and ruined.  The eggs were in 
a single layer, densely packed together.  They were nearly spherical, 
and pearly gray.  Each was about 1mm across.  The insides of a few that 
I broke were just goo - no baby bug, yet.

Do you think the spider was protecting the eggs (hers?) or eating them?

Unless I hear a good case for the eggs belonging to the spider, I plan 
to remove the leaf and destroy them.

Thanks,
Ginda