Lace bugs (Tingidae)

Abstract

The members of the Tingidae family are commonly known as “lace bugs” because of the lacelike appearance of their pronotum and hemelytra. The family is distributed worldwide and is constituted by three subfamilies, Tinginae, Cantacaderinae, and Vianaidinae; all of them represented in the Neotropical Region being the last one endemic of this region. There are around 300 genera and 2,500 species in this family, but for the Neotropical Region, there are known approximately 70 genera and 600 species; most of them belong to the subfamily Tinginae. All lace bugs are phytophagous and host specifi c, with a few exceptions. Among them, there are some that have economic importance as crop pests and others that are useful for controlling harmful weeds in fi eld crops. Herein we characterize and diagnose the family, we mention some of the most relevant aspects of their biology and ecology, and we provide a summary of its taxonomy with some comments about its phylogeny. The economically most relevant species of the Neotropical Region are listed; for all of them, we provide information about their host plants, distributions, and related literature. We also developed a key to the most economically important Neotropical genera.