Zoogeographic notes on the lace bug genus Acalypta Westwood in the Americas with description of a new species from Mexico (Hemiptera: Tingidae)

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The Holarctic genus Acalypta has 11 of its 37 species occurring in the New World. Of the two species shared by the Old and New worlds, one appears to be a trans-Beringian species and the other a European species introduced on both the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts of North America. Known ranges of the other American species reflect effects of the last continental glacier in North America; even the two southernmost species (one new), which occur only in Mexico, can be interpreted as relicts left in the Mexican highlands by the poleward migration of ecological belts following the retreating glacier. The absence of records from the Great Plains, the Great Basin, and the arid Southwest suggests these areas are hostile to members of the genus; but the lack of records for the broad alluvial valley along the Mississippi River may mean these generally brachypterous, secretive species have not yet invaded a land made available at a relatively recent geological time. While Acalypta is a member of a family essentially associated with angiosperm plants, its species are most frequently collected from mosses; its occasional development on seed plants suggests that the host crossover to the mosses is not complete and that reversion to old food habits occurs when the mosses are in a state unfavorable for lace bug development.

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ELECTRONIC FILE - Zoology: Invertebrates