LACE BUG

any insect of the easily recognized cosmopolitan family Tingidae (order Heteroptera), which numbers about 2,000 species. 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. It sucks the juices from foliage, causing a yellow spotting, then browning; the leaves eventually drop off. Nicotine sprays are used to control these insects. The lace bug deposits its eggs on the underside of a leaf and covers them with a mucous secretion that hardens into a conelike form. The small, black, 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.