Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Photo#1963341
Blissus? - Blissus leucopterus

Blissus? - Blissus leucopterus
Nashua, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, USA
May 2, 2021
Size: 2mm

Moved
Moved from Chinch Bugs.

 
Can you tell us how the species was determined?
There are 15 species in BG's coverage area, and we have representatives of only six of them.

 
Location, wings, and setae
B. leucopterus is known from the Northeastern US and within BG has been documented from a site (Beaver Brook in Hollis, NH) very close to where this photograph was taken. More importantly, though,the wings of B. leucopterus also "vary in length (from as long as the body to ⅓-½ body length). What's more, in Leonard's 1968 revision of the representatives of the genus Blissus from the Northeast, he explicitly includes the presence of "straw-yellow" abdominal setae as being characteristic of the species B. leucopterus (particularly B. leucopterus hirtus, with B. leucopterus leucopterus having paler yellow or silvery setae, although I don't think we can say accurately which of the two subspecies this individual belongs to from this photograph.)
The combination of these traits combined with the known distribution of the species and the previous sighting from a location very close to where this photograph was taken leads to the inference that the pictured specimen belongs to the species Blissus leucopterus.

Here's the photo of the previous entry mentioned above:

 
Thanks!
I appreciate that you've done the research (not everyone does, unfortunately). :)

 
Ehhhh...
I'll admit I was pretty hasty with it. What set me to this ID was stumbling over the previous entry from Hollis and then noticing the setae of the abdomen. Thankfully sifting through Leonard's paper reassured my judgement (this time).

Blissus leucopterus?

Moved
Moved from ID Request.