Maternal Care in a Lace Bug,Corythucha Hewitti(Hemiptera: Tingidae)

Many species in at least 13 families of Hemiptera display parental care (Wilson, 1971). For the Tingidae (lacebugs), a relatively large family with member species that are often very abundant (Drake & Ruhoff, 1965), parental care has been described in detail for only a few species. Tallamy’s (1982, 1984, 1985, 1986) and Tallamy & Denno’s (1981a, b, 1982) extensive studies of the lace bug, Gargaphia solani, showed that maternal care of offspring is age specific, has a genetic basis, and greatly improves offspring survival by reducing predation. Maternal care, however, is costly in that tending females are less fecund (Tallamy, 1982,; Tallamy & Denno, 1981 a, b, 1982). Three other lace bug species do not exhibit maternal care, but two of these are not subjected to intense predation and the third possesses other life history traits to avoid predation (Tallamy & Denno, 1981 b). In this paper, I describe the biology and parental care behaviors for Corythucha hewitti (Drake), a lace bug that has a wide distribution (Canada and northeastern through northcentral US (Drake and Ruhoff, 1965)), high densities, and causes extensive plant damage. Neither the biology nor behavior of this species has been previously described. To test the hypothesis that tending by female parents influences persistence of their broods, I experimentally removed female adults. Material care can evolve and persist if increased inclusive fitness of adult females via increased survival of brood offspring outweighs assumed costs of tending or protecting offspring (Wilson, 1975; Tallamy 1982, 1986; Tallamy & Denno, 1981a, b, 1982). Fitness via increased brood survival may be further increased if kin discrimination occurs, so that related individuals are treated preferentially and