What are these? Friend or foe

cant make it out clearly but if they have 8 legs and 2 body sections they are spiders and therefore friends. these dont look like a typical spider though. what size are they?

How big are they? Spiders definately. They are usually en masse when first born. They look like little crabs Sbg. Friendly to the garden but yuk, seeing them all together!

when my spider cocoon hatched you could clearly see the spider anatomy. i posted pictures at the time. but different species of spiders have different features. i'd be interested in photos when they are a little bigger.

Just got back from garden club and having spoke to our guest speaker I believe they might be Willow aphid.

I will try and take another pick tomorrow as there are quite a few on different branches, before I get rid of them.
Ive had a look on the web at Willow aphid and they can get quite big.

What type of plants are they on? Have you not seen them before?
What treatment will you? Yes please a close up will be interesting!

Yep willow aphid and lots of them. I have just uploaded some pics to show their size. Some info on the web but not a lot. I had never heard of them before and cant find them in any of my books.

Sorry I forgot to mention that they are on my Willow Dome. (Salix)