Help identify the Galagabugs what feast upon the corn

Benny sez, "A friend of mine shot this picture of some Galaga-looking bugs and shared it on Facebook. According to his description they seem oblivious to humans and are attracted to corn plants. Perhaps some happy mutant entomologists out there can help us identify the bugs. We live in Malaysia which has a tropical rainforest climate - perhaps that information will help a little. P.S. please credit the picture to Robert Chua from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia."

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Robert

Malaysian Corn Bug (Flybug Galagensis)?
spriggan

Nuke the site from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure.
Anonymous

It looks like a zither.
- flosofl
  
  Anon, you just made my day. I still laugh every now and then when I recall the Epic Zither Thread.
Lissamphibia

If anyone wants to expand the effort for a crowdsourced identification, here is a list of bug blogs that run weekly or regular ID challenges: http://myrmecos.net/2010/12/06/the-monday-night-mystery-takes-a-hiatus/

Seriously, the folks who read these blogs? Crazy fast at identifying obscure bugs and debating fine taxonomic distinctions.
sciguy

they look like male tephritid flies, but the picture is not that good. if you really want to know, ask Doug Yanega at the UCR entomology museum: dyanega@ucr.edu
Anonymous

These are definitely Achennorhyncha/Homoptera (plant hoppers), probably in the Fulgoroidea. Possible families include Cixiidae, Derbidae, Issidae – I would probably say Issidae (like this one http://bugguide.net/node/view/375688/bgimage). They are called plant hoppers because they can hop and suck plant juices.
Lissamphibia

Any chance of getting a more close-up photo? If they still have access to the bugs, photographing through a magnifying glass or loupe might help in the absence of fancy lenses or zoom capability. Or even a line drawing of the insect’s body — especially the features of the head and mouthparts — would help narrow it down.

BugGuide is a great resource, but it might be tricky to ID an insect from Southeast Asia because the site only covers specimens from the U.S. and Canada.

I really can’t even tell the order for certain, but here are some starting points:

- If they are sucking juices from the leaf, and their mouthparts look like a thin jointed straw-like tube, then they’re probably true bugs, order Hemiptera. I might start looking through the plant-parasitic true bugs: http://bugguide.net/node/view/12746/bgpage — for example, whiteflies (Aleyrodidae), winged aphids (aphid “alates,” in the Aphidoidea) or psyllids (Psylloidea). They’re holding their wings in an unusual position; could it have been windy when the photo was taken?

- Or they could be barklice, order Psocodea: http://bugguide.net/node/view/67/bgpage — these look similar to winged aphids, but I don’t know whether any feed on corn.

- If they don’t fit any of those characteristics, then you might want to check the true flies next, order Diptera — good luck, though, because it’s a huge group! If they’re not feeding on the corn leaf directly, as adults, maybe their larvae eat some part of the plant or live in the soil nearby?

- Or they could be very tiny moths, or something even stranger.

Hope this helps!
Snig

Has kind of an aphidy look to it. Close up would help of course. (Enhance… Enhance… Enhance…) they tend to swarm a little more than moths, though that may vary by species. Some tropical species of whitefly?
jordan

I vote outer space. No way these are local boys.
Soliloquy

This post is inspiring me to get outside and start IDing bugs around my neck of the woods. Hey Mrs. Morse, my high school biology teacher, thanks for piquing my interest in this sort of thing.
Anonymous

They should submit it to “What’s that bug?” at http://www.whatsthatbug.com/
Isoko

A resource I’ve used in the past for insect identification:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/insect-identification/
Snig

If he saw them fly, it may give details too. Moths flutter a bit more, the aphids/whiteflies go slower but more steadily in my mind. The obliviousness is more aphid/whitefly than moth, but I don’t know if that holds true on these ones.
Mark Dow

BugGuide is also an excellent resource. I didn’t find this one right away.

http://bugguide.net
Alien-e

I sent an e-mail to my father (a Doctor of Entomology). His response below:

They look to be a moth of some kind. The adult moth does not feed on the corn but the larvae may. If they could collect some specimens in alcohol and ship them to me I can get them identified and probably give them a control procedure. Larval specimens would be very helpful. Need to know if they are external or internal feeders.
Anonymous

Species of planthopper probably from Derbidae family
I photographed something very similar in borneo
http://www.pbase.com/ctranter/image/102481160
kaek

ZOMG! KILL IT WITH FIRE! -Sincerely, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois & Missouri
Anonymous

Those are the tractor beam ones. They’re blue, so they’ve already been hit once. Now would be the time to let them grab your fighter (if you’ve got an extra life).
- MadRat
  
  I concur with Anon #4. My guess this is the staging area for the challenge level, since no bees or butterflies are present. http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Galaga/Getting_Started
Anonymous

I photographed one of these in my back yard this past summer.
I live in central Alberta, Canada.
No, I don’t know what it is!
Skillator

The one at the top is Steve. I met him on a tour with Nine Inch Nails. I don’t know about the rest of them.
oasisob1

Doesn’t ANYBODY know? It’s ‘shopped.

(Pixels, many shops seen)
Anonymous

Part of the problem IS that this is Malaysian. Western science is, sadly, mostly western. So most major resources in English, on the core internet, or otherwise available to the BB community are probably tuned to the insect life of the western world.

Short of there being someone in the community who is a entomologist who specializes in the insects of the South Pacific or Asia, I doubt an accurate identification is possible.

~D. Walker