i appreciate all my local lace bugs, as much as most of them just look like flat seeds, but i'd be lying if i said i don't wish i saw fancy ones more often. despite thorough searches on multiple plants my first Stephanitis was this bewildering encounter with one in my bathroom at 4 in the morning, which is exactly what a ghost or killer would place as bait if it wanted me to go outside at 4 in the morning to look for more lace bugs. but i endured

i don't find tingids often, and i imagine most people don't either unless they have lots of plants and need to deal with their hooligan ways, so the serendipitous encounter i had with this obscure little Dictyla nassata that just decided to land on my fingernail out of nowhere was extra special. maybe it's not quite as flashy as other more well known lacebugs, but those wing edges are still very pretty. and it didn't stab me, despite their reputation for doing so with barely any provocation, so that was a bonus

some very freshly molted thistle lacebug (Tingis cardui) siblings, with the first one still in the process of inflating its soon-to-be-fancy wings. unsurprisingly, these guys are quite common on thistles, but the nymphs tend to hide in the flowers

an older adult for comparison. they retain some of the white from the teneral individuals above, not the most elaborate lacebugs in the world by any means but still very pretty