Don't know if it's a new bug, but the effects were rather startling.

We have a 1/2 acre lotus pond that was emerging from its winter dormancy in fine form, and in less than a week all the above-water leaves (some lotus leaves float on the water, others grow on stalks above the water) had been totally skeletonized by some sort of caterpillar. We had to spend half a day poling our canoe around in the pond, cutting off affected leaves, and burning them. The new growth seems to be coming in healthy, so I guess the egg-laying moths have either died or moved on.

What's odd is that it's never happened before. Oh, we've had some insect damage before, but not large scale. But I suspect that the culprit is lack of rain rather than a new type of pest. Lotus leaves are extremely slick and regular rains probably keep insect eggs and larvae washed off of them. That just hasn't happened this spring.