I've seen Assassin bugs mentioned in many forums and articles but didn't bother to look them up. UNTIL..... Today I surveyed my potatoes which are just starting to crinkle up and soon ready to harvest, when I saw a cluster of these orange bugs at the top of one plant. This is in the midst of a 4x8 ft raised bed full of potatoes but no other plant has these bugs on it. I googled orange bugs and am doing the happy dance if I'm right! First year I've seen these - last year I planted a single milkweed plant which seems to have reproduced (although they're only 8 inches tall no flowers at this point) but I wonder if that's what attracted the bugs. Seeing this cluster of assassin nymphs coincides with seeing potato beetles and stink bugs just this week - not on the potato plants but 20 feet away on the cucumbers. I picked them off but also see that the Amaranth that is volunteering all over is also performing well as a sacrificial trap plant for the potato beetles and just like last year, the potatoes are not being bothered at all. So after 7 yrs of toiling in my dirt maybe my simple permaculture system is coming to fruition :) The first photo is my own very bad image (sorry - I even hired a tutor once, to teach me photography to no avail.) The second is a photo I found on Bing. For the curious here's an article by UC of Calif describing how beneficial they are as I had to confirm that these are GOOD bugs :) I'll try to see them mature and add pictures at those stages if I can.
http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/NE/assassin_bugs.html