Proceedings of the United States National Museum SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION • WASHINGTON, D.C. Volume 112 I960 Number 3431 LACE-BUG GENERA OF THE WORLD (HEMIPTERA: TINGIDAE) « By Carl J. Drake and Florence A. Ruhoff Introduction A treatise of the generic names of the family Tingidae from a global standpoint embodies problems similar to those frequently encountered in corresponding studies in other animal groups. The more im-portant criteria, including such basic desiderata as fixation of type species, synonyms, priority, and dates of technical publications implicate questions concomitant with recent trends toward the clarification and stabilization of zoological nomenclature. Zoogeography, predicated and authenticated on the generic level by the distribution of genera and species, is portrayed here by means of tables, charts, and maps of the tingifauna of the world. This visual pattern of distribution helps one to form a more vivid concept of the family and its hierarchic levels of subfamilies and genera. To a limited extent the data indicate distributional concentrations and probable centers of evolution and dispersal paths of genera. The phylogenetic relationship of genera is not discussed. The present treatise recognizes 216 genera (plus 79 synonyms, homonyms, and emendations) of the Tingidae of the world and gives 1 Research for this paper was supported In part by the National Science Foundation, grant No. 4095.