Description of eight new species of the genus Acanthocephala Laporte, 1833 from South America (Hemiptera, Coreidae, Acanthocephalinae)

Eight new species of the leaf-footed bug genus Acanthocephala Laporte, 1833 (Coreidae, Acanthocephalini) from Colombia and Brazil are described, and Acanthocephala pleuritica (Costa, 1863) is redescribed giving the first known locality record of the species. The descriptions include novel characters from male and female genitalia, and from external morphology such as armature of legs. For each species, we provide a habitus photograph of the adult, as well as photographs of male and female genitalia and a distributional map. Affinities with the other species of the genus are also discussed.