The members of the Tingidae family are commonly known as "lace bugs" because of the lacelike appearance of their pronotum and hemelytra. The family is distributed worldwide and is constituted by three subfamilies, Tinginae, Cantacaderinae, and Vianaidinae; all of them represented in the Neotropical Region being the last one endemic of this region. There are around 300 genera and 2,500 species in this family, but for the Neotropical Region, there are known approximately 70 genera and 600 species; most of them belong to the subfamily Tinginae. All lace bugs are phytophagous and host specifi c, with a few exceptions. Among them, there are some that have economic importance as crop pests and others that are useful for controlling harmful weeds in fi eld crops. Herein we characterize and diagnose the family, we mention some of the most relevant aspects of their biology and ecology, and we provide a summary of its taxonomy with some comments about its phylogeny. The economically most relevant species of the Neotropical Region are listed; for all of them, we provide information about their host plants, distributions, and related literature. We also developed a key to the most economically important Neotropical genera.

Mountain wetlands provide unique information because their biota is highly specific and contributes significantly to regional diversity. The goals of this study were assessing altitudinal and temporal variation in the distribution of Heteropteran assemblages in mountain wetlands; and studying the phenology of the most abundant species. All stages of Heteroptera and data on environmental variables were collected monthly over one year from five mountain wetlands. A simple community structure, and also a low richness of aquatic true bugs, composed of four Heteropteran families (C o r i x i d a e , B e l o s t o m a t i d a e , N o t o n e c t i d a e a n d Gelastocoridae), characterized our ponds. Richness and abundance varied temporally and spatially (p < 0.0001); and increased at higher elevations. Additionally, the highest abundance of cold stenothermal species occurred at the highest altitudes where harsh conditions are prevalent. Ectemnostega (E.) quadrata and S. (T.) jensenhaarupi, both endemic to the Andes region, were the most abundant species. Both these species showed univoltine cycles and overwintered as adults. Biodiversity of the Heteroptera reached maximum values in summer when water temperature increased. Temporal and spatial monitoring studies provide key information on the distribution, diversity, and habitat requirements of Heteropteran species as well as on conservation and management of these vulnerable habitats and species which are faced with climate warming.

The introduction of alien species is one of the main problems in conservation. Many successful invaders cause severe economic and ecological damage. Such is the case of Leptoglossus occidentalis, a phytophagous true bug native to North America, which has become a pest in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. Within the genus, another species whose distributional range is expanding toward the east of North America is Leptoglossus clypealis. As climate determines the successful establishment of insects, the identification of climatically suitable areas for invasive species based on ecological niche models (ENMs) offers an excellent opportunity for preventing invasions. In this study, ENMs were built for both species and their native climatic niches were compared. Their niche breath was also measured. The climatic niches of both species are identical and the niche breadth of L. clypealis is broader than that of L. occidentalis. In view of the great ecological resemblance between these two species, we believe that L. clypealis could became a major pest thus it should be carefully monitored. The results of the present worldwide ENMs showed numerous regions with suitable conditions for the establishment of both species. The future ENMs exhibited a retraction in the suitable areas in North America, Europe and Asia.

Three independent but complementary lines of research have provided evidence for the recognition of refugia: paleontology, phylogeography and species distributional modelling (SDM). SDM assesses the ecological requirements of a species based on its known occurrences and enables its distribution to be projected on past climatological reconstructions. One advantage over the other two approaches is that it provides an explicit link to environment and geography, thereby enabling the analysis of a large number of taxa in the search for more general refugia patterns. We propose a methodology for using SDM to recognize biogeographical patterns of endemic insects from Southern South America. We built species distributional models for 59 insect species using Maxent. The species analyzed in the study have narrow niche breadth and were classified into four assemblages according to the ecoregion they inhabit. Models were built for the Late Pleistocene, Mid-Holocene and Present. Through the procedure developed for this study we used the models to recognize: Late Pleistocene refugia; areas with high species richness during all three periods; climatically constant areas (in situ refugia); consistent patterns among in situ refugia, Pleistocene refugia and current distribution of endemic species. We recognized two adjacent Pleistocene refugia with distinct climates; four in situ refugia, some of which are undergoing a process of fragmentation and retraction or enlargement. Interestingly, we found a congruent pattern among in situ refugia, Pleistocene refugia and endemic species. Our results seem to be consistent with the idea that long-term climate stability is known to have a key role in promoting persistence of biodiversity in an area. Our Pleistocene and in situ refugia are consistent with refugia identified in studies focusing on different taxa and applying other methodologies, showing that the method developed can be used to identify such areas and prove their importance for conservation.

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is one of the most important staple crops for small farmers in the tropics, feeding about 800 million people worldwide. It is currently cultivated in South and Central America, Africa and Asia. The genus Vatiga is widespread throughout the Neotropical region. Its species are sympatric and feed exclusively on cassava. The main objectives of this paper are: (1) to assess the potential distribution of Vatiga, one of the most relevant pests of cassava; (2) to project the resulting models onto the world; (3) to recognize areas with suitable and optimal climates (and thus, high probability) for future colonization, and (4) to compare this model with the harvested area of cassava analyzing the climatic variables required by both the host and the pest species. Species distribution models were built using Maxent (v3.3.3k) with bioclimatic variables from the WorldClim database in 2.5 arc min resolution across the globe. Our model shows that Vatiga has the potential to expand its current distribution into other suitable areas, and could invade other regions where cassava is already cultivated, e.g., Central Africa and Asia. Considering the results and the high host specificity of Vatiga, its recent appearance in Réunion Island (Africa) poses a serious threat, as nearby areas are potentially suitable for invasion and could serve as dispersal routes enabling Vatiga to reach the continent. The present work may help prevention or early detection of Vatiga spp. in areas where cassava is grown.

An inventory of aquatic and terrestrial Heteroptera (excluding Aradidae, Coreidae and Pentatomoidea), comprising 101 species in 23 families, collected in the Chaco National Park (NE Argentina) is presented. . Fifty species are new records to the Argentinean Chaco province, and six species represent new records to Argentina: Cryphula affinis (Distant), Valtissius distinctus (Distant) (Rhyparochromidae), Stenopoda subinermis Stål, Diaditus pilosicornis Bergroth (Reduviidae), Buenoa uhleri Truxal (Notonectidae), and Paravelia splendoris (Drake & Harris) (Veliidae).

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A revision of the Cantacaderinae of austral southern South America (Argentina and Chile) is provided with redescriptions of the species, photographs of habitus, key and new distributional records. This is the first time a Cantacaderini is recorded for Argentina. This first record corresponds to a new species of Stenocader which is described in the present contribution. Results Tribe Cantacaderini StlStenocader tingidoides (Spinola)