Sunday, 9 September 2018

zoology - Help me identify this insect from Bangladesh



I have seen this insect flying literally everywhere in Dhaka city (Bangladesh) over the last two months. It's small -- around 1-1.5 inches long. It's not an agile flyer and can be easily grabbed by hand during flight.


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Answer



This is actually the flying adult of a scale insect (superfamily Coccoidea). Specifically, this appears to be some species of the genus Drosicha.


Here is a picture resembling your specimen:


https://www.flickr.com/photos/itchydogimages/8944327442


Source: John Horstman


And another from Vietnam that looks very similar:


drosicha


Source: Dan Doucette



I can only find info on a closely related species, Drosicha corpulenta, and here's a tree of related species.


Scalenet provides numerous keys and references that could be useful for positively IDing this specimen.


I will keep searching for more details, but this might be the best you get without asking a scale insect expert.


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