Serinethinae is a subfamily of the hemiptera

Hemiptera

Hemiptera is an order of insects most often known as the true bugs , comprising around 50,000–80,000 species of cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, shield bugs, and others...

n family Rhopalidae

Rhopalidae

Rhopalidae, or scentless plant bugs are a family of true bugs. In older literature, the family is sometimes called "Corizidae". They differ from the related coreids in lacking well-developed scent glands. They are usually light-colored and smaller than the coreids...

, sometimes known as soapberry bugs. They are brightly colored seed-eaters, comprising three genera

Genera

Genera is a commercial operating system and development environment for Lisp machines developed by Symbolics. It is essentially a fork of an earlier operating system originating on the MIT AI Lab's Lisp machines which Symbolics had used in common with LMI and Texas Instruments...

 and about sixty-five species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

. These bugs are specialists on plants in the soapberry family (Sapindaceae

Sapindaceae

Sapindaceae, also known as the soapberry family, is a family of flowering plants in the order Sapindales. There are about 140-150 genera with 1400-2000 species, including maple, horse chestnut and lychee....

), which includes maple

Maple

Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in...

s, balloon vine

Cardiospermum

Cardiospermum is a genus of approximately 14 species in the soapberry family, Sapindaceae, which are native to the American, Indian, and African tropics...

s, and soapberry trees

Sapindus

Sapindus is a genus of about five to twelve species of shrubs and small trees in the Lychee family, Sapindaceae, native to warm temperate to tropical regions in both the Old World and New World. The genus includes both deciduous and evergreen species. Members of the genus are commonly known as...

, among others. Seeds of the plants are the main resource used by adults for reproduction and nymphs for growth and development. Their diversity is the result of an adaptive radiation on these plants, whose cyanide

Cyanide

A cyanide is a chemical compound that contains the cyano group, -C≡N, which consists of a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom. Cyanides most commonly refer to salts of the anion CN−. Most cyanides are highly toxic....

-based defenses the bugs have overcome. The New World genus Jadera

Jadera

Jadera is a genus of true bugs in the soapberry bug subfamily. Members of this genus are only found in the Americas .-External links:* on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site...

consists of nearly 20 species that range naturally from Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

 to southern Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

. Boisea

Boisea

Boisea is the least speciose genus of the soapberry bug subfamily. Members of this genus are found in North America, India, and Africa. Unlike other serinethine genera, the distribution of Boisea is very patchy; it is speculated that its highly vicariant range is relictual of what was previously...

consists of 4 species, 1 in Africa, 1 in India, and 2 in North America, including the well-known box elder

Box Elder

Box Elder may refer to:*The Box elder, Acer negundo, a species of maple*The Box elder bug, an insect which feeds on maple trees*Box Elders, a punk band from Omaha, Nebraska*Places named "Box Elder" include:*Box Elder, Montana, United States of America...

 bug, Boisea trivittata. Leptocoris

Leptocoris

Leptocoris is the largest genus of the soapberry bug subfamily. The 41 species of this genus are distributed throughout Africa, South Asia, and Oceania and are thought to have originated in Africa, where the greatest diversity of Leptocoris species are found...

includes more than 40 species, in Oceania

Oceania

Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

, and Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

.

Jadera haematoloma

Jadera haematoloma

Jadera haematoloma, the red-shouldered bug, goldenrain-tree bug or soapberry bug, is a species of true bug that lives throughout the United States and south to northern South America. It feeds on seeds within the soapberry plant family, Sapindaceae, and is known to rapidly adapt to feeding on...

is a soapberry bug found in Florida known for its rapid adaptive evolution

Evolution

Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...

following the introduction of a non-native soapberry plant.