Pod-sucking Bug

Alydidae; Alydinae; Riptortus macleani Schaffner, 1963. There are many pictures, of this bug, on the internet. So, finding a match for identification purposes is not too difficult. The greatest problem, as usual, is establishing the presence of this insect in the Philippines. It doesn't really matter how beautiful your pictures might be, or how many identical images you find online. When it comes right down to establishing distribution, if you don't have scientific documentation for the subject of your spotting, in your area, you pretty much have nothing. In this case, I was lucky enough to stumble on http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/fiji/pdf/iom7-7cor.pdf..... It is a pdf. which has 34 pages, but you don't need to download it. You can just read it and if you want to go right to the proof of presence in the Philippines, just scroll down to page 2 and there it is. Riptortus macleani is present in the Philippines. If only it were always so easy.....