(Hemiptera: Tingidae)
Issue No. 161
F. W. Mead
October, 1975
Introduction
In northern Florida the fringetree lace bug, Leptoypha mutica (Say), is an uncommon but locally abundant pest of fringetree, Chionanthus virginicus L. The fringetree (often called old-man’s-beard tree) is a favorite of home gardens and is stocked by some nurseries. A heavy lace bug infestation can injure nearly every leaf on a tree; moderate injury is characterized by mottled leaves (fig. 4), while severely injured leaves are uniformly yellowish brown and withered. This lace bug is widely distributed in the eastern half of the United States and has been reported numerous times on ash (Fraxinus spp.) as well as fringetree.