lace bug

lace bug, (family Tingidae), any of about 800 species of insects (order Heteroptera) in which the adult, usually less than 5 mm (0.2 inch) long, has a lacelike pattern of ridges and membranous areas on its wings and upper body surface. The lace bug sucks the juices from foliage, causing a yellow spotting, then browning, followed by leaves dropping from the plant.

The lace bug deposits its eggs on the underside of a leaf and covers them with a mucous secretion that hardens into a dark, conelike form. The small, dark, spiny nymphs do not resemble the adult. The life cycle takes between seven and nine weeks, and there are usually two generations each season. The lace bug, depending on the species, may pass the winter either in the adult or the egg stage.

Some members of this cosmopolitan family are serious pests of plants, such as the azalea lace bug (Stephantis pyrioides), which is common in the southeastern United States.