Armoured & colorful insects/predators

Greetings all,

First thanks for keeping this list alive. I find it educational and often entertaining.

If you folks have an archive and instructions on how to access, I might find answers to the following email as it was probably answered by others before.

Sadly after returning from vacation, my entire crop of pumpkin plants (3) had been decimated.

I inspected the plants by lifting the vines off the ground, and found 2 types of insects.
I see no evidence that these insects are the culprit, but if they use some sort of proboscis sucking structure I don't know if I would recognize the site of the damage.

At any rate the plants turned more yellow than green and wilted in a way different from lack of water. The plants more resembled what happens after a frost. Wilting from the edges first.

Insect Description
The first insect looked like a harlequin beetle on steroids without any red or orange. Just kind of brown. Probably 1/2 inch long by 1/4 inch wide. Behind the head looks like a rectangle and at the other end a point forms. There is a distinct X on the back. [><>

The second insect was a kind of brilliant sky blue behind the head and jet black other parts including long legs relative to body size. The blue looked kind of fuzzy on first inspection. About 2 of these would fit on the top of a pencil eraser. When I looked again a day later the same insects had varying colorations. Some looked like engorged aphids, that is they had shiny green instead of brilliant sky blue fuzzy bodies. I am convinced these were the same insects because of their shape.

Any information would be helpful. I am specifically interested in:
1) common and/or scientific name of these insects
2) knowing if they are the real predators
3) what can be done to minimize their effects (or eradicate them altogether!)
4) description or references to these insects life histories.

Thanks for your reading this email
Curt
Albuquerque, New Mexico

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