(Hemiptera: Tingidae)
Issue No. 346
Frank W. Mead and Jorge E. Pena
September, 1991
Introduction
The avocado lace bug, Pseudacysta perseae (Heidemann), was described in 1908 as Acysta perseae from Florida specimens. Blatchley (1926) stated that Acysta perseae Heidemann differed widely from Acysta spp. of Champion (1898). Blatchley described the genus Pseudacysta for A. perseae. For most of the 83 years since its description, the avocado lace bug has been regarded as having limited distribution, primarily to peninsular Florida, and being of only occasional minor economic importance. Recently the number of complaints about its damage to avocado leaves, Persea americana P. Mill., has increased in Florida, and within the last two years damaging populations have been reported for the first time in Puerto Rico (Medina-Gaud et al., 1991) and the Dominican Republic (Abud Antun, 1991).