Help with bug ID?

Some sort of midge perhaps?

These started appearing this evening, by the bijillions! At first, I thought it was ash fall-out from a nearby forest fire - but they are bugs. Many appear to have some sort of white substance attached that rubs off quite easily (caught quite a few in my hand), with no apparent detriment caused by losing said substance - something to do with reproduction?.

These are only about 1.5mm in length. Note 'fur' under wings (remnants of white substance?).

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Location: Alpine, Wyoming

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I'm not from around your parts, so I can't ID it, but I'd hazard a guess that the white stuff is some kind of fungal growth. I'll look forward to listening in to what you hear from the experts

Billions of them might suggest some kind of mating flight or migration, so it should all be over very quickly.

Good capture- It's an adult winged aphid - not sure if that's fungus or whether it's one of the woolly aphids.
Brian v.

When G'jim said 'many' rather than all of the insects had it, I assumed it was something pathological. I guess some must have lost their coats en route I'd never heard of woolly aphids, so I just looked them up. Quite extraordinary! Some are very like the one in G'jim's photo.

LordV wrote in post #11012809
Good capture- It's an adult winged aphid - not sure if that's fungus or whether it's one of the woolly aphids.
Brian v.

Thanks, Brian, for the ID.