A key to genera of neotropical Tingidae

Tingidae (lacebugs) are relatively small, often overlooked bugs, and can cause considerable damage to their host plants, such as agricultural crops.  This family is difficult to identify because of the lack of dichotomous keys.  Often identifications of these insects are carried out using images, sometimes of poor quality, and ambiguous species descriptions, yielding unreliable determinations.  Regional keys of Tingidae have been produced focusing on Old World taxa but a unified key of Neotropical Tingidae is absent in the literature.  To correct for this absence, we propose the development of a key to Neotropical Tingidae genera and species.  This key will be based on readily observable diagnostic characters from museum specimens, such as the orientation of the paranota fold, presence of antenniferous tubercles, and number of rows of areolae on the costal area. Taxa will be selected based on information from USDA databases and literature.  Eventually, this key will be transcribed into an on-line, interactive taxonomic key allowing for any entomologist in federal agencies, museums, and academic institutions easy access for making rapid and accurate identifications of these insects.