PROC. ENTOMOL. SOC. WASH. 104(3), 2002, pp. 687-691 LEPTOYPHA ELLIPTICA MCATEE AND /.. lUCIS DRAKE (HEMIPTERA: TINtilDAE): NEW DISTRIBUTION RECORDS OF SELDOM-COLLECTED LACE BLICS, WITH CLARIFICATION OF HOST-PLANT RELATIONSHIPS A. G. Wheeler, Jr. Department of Entomology, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, U.S.A. (e-mail:
[email protected]) Abstract. — Previously published information on the host plant of Leptoyplui elliptica McAtee and L. ilicis Drake — holly. Ilex sp. (Aquifoliaceae) — is based on misidentification of the actual host. Both lace bugs specialize on shrubs of the genus Forestiera (Oleaceae) and, thus, develop on oleaceous plants like nearly all other species of Leptoypha. In addition to a clarification of host associations for these little-known tingids, new distri-bution records and biological notes are provided. Key Words: insect distribution, Forestiera spp., host-plant relationships Holly, Ilex sp. (Aquifoliaceae), is the only recorded host plant of the lace bug Leptoyplui ilicis Drake; the specific epithet reflects this tingid's collection on a shrub presumed to be a species of Ilex. A second lace bug, L. elliptica McAtee, also was tak-en on "//t'.v" sp. at the type locality of L. ilicis in Georgia (Drake 1919. McAtee 1919). My 1985 collection of both species on "holly" in Tennessee supported an ab-errant host association in a genus that oth-erwise develops on members of the Ole-aceae. My eventual discovery that the host plant in Tennessee was not a holly but an olea-ceous shrub, glade privet (Forestiera ligus-trina [Michaux] Poiret), suggested that the ''Ilex'" in Georgia had been similarly mis-identified in 1917 when L. ilicis was first collected. A 1991 trip to Stone Mountain, Ga., the type locality of L. ilicis, plus ad-ditional fieldwork, confirmed my hypothe-sis that L. ilicis, and the often syntopic L. elliptica, develop on species of Forestiera. Here, in addition to clarifying host rela-tionships for both tingids, I provide new distribution records and biological notes. Voucher material has been deposited in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Leptoypha elliptica McAtee (Fig. I) Described from "Texas" without host-plant data by McAtee (1917), this tingid has since been reported from Florida and Geor-gia (Drake 1918). Indiana (Blatchley 1926), Missouri (Froeschner 1944), and Tennessee (Drake and Ruhoff 1965). It was included in a list of the Tingidae of Oklahoma (Drew and Arnold 1977) because the recorded dis-tribution suggested its eventual collection in that state. Drake's (1919) record of holly as the host on Stone Mountain, Ga., was based on the miridologist H.H. Knight's apparent misidentification off. ligustrina. The Texas record from "swamp bush" (Drake 1918) almost certainly refers to swamp privet (F. acuminata: see Discussion). New collection records (* = new state
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