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Tingidae

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Description

Pretty Lace Bug! Taken at night in Singapore.

Quote from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tingidae
Tingidae is a family of very small (2–10 millimetres or 0.08–0.39 inches) insects in the order Hemiptera that are commonly referred to as lace bugs. This group is distributed worldwide with about 2,000 described species.

They are called lace bugs because the pronotum and forewings of the adult have a delicate and intricate network of divided areas that resemble lace. Their body appearance is flattened dorso-ventrally and they can be broadly oval or slender. Often the head is concealed under the hood-like pronotum.

Lace bugs are usually host-specific and can be very destructive to plants. Most feed on the undersides of leaves by piercing the epidermis and sucking the sap. The then empty cells give the leaves a bronzed or silvery appearance. Each individual usually completes its entire life cycle on the same plant, if not the same part of the plant.

Most species have one to two generations per year, but some species have multiple generations. Most overwinter as adults but some species overwinter as eggs or nymphs. This group has incomplete metamorphosis in that the immature stages resemble the adults, except that the immatures are smaller and do not have wings. However, wing pads appear in the second and third instar and increase in size as the nymph matures. Depending on the species, lace bugs have four (few) or five (most) instars.

Lace bugs sometimes fall out of trees, land on people and bite, which, although painful, is a minor nuisance. No medical treatment is necessary.
Image size
1200x800px 1.01 MB
Make
Canon
Model
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Shutter Speed
1/160 second
Aperture
F/16.0
Focal Length
100 mm
ISO Speed
125
Date Taken
Dec 6, 2014, 12:22:16 AM
Sensor Size
7mm
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Comments11
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Octoboy-the-8th's avatar
So sweet and delicate! Excellent work spotting this little beauty, looks quite easy to miss. Well taken.