Spotting

Wow!

Thanks a lot, Martin, that makes a good starting point for research.

This looks like the cotton cushion scale form Australia but donated to habitats across the world. Yours is not exactly the same. The scalew is on the left with the filament projecting from herr tail. The structure to the right covers the egg mass. http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/788...

Scott, there were three or four more of these around, looking exactly the same, so it is not a random shape. I mean, it is not like a damaged specimen. At first I thought it could be a treehopper's egg mass, but the filaments made me think of scale insects - although, as you say, they look odd. I'll check later to see if there was any development.

Maybe a scale insect, similar to an Crypticerya sp. or Icerya sp., but the ones I've looked at have more long filaments...