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Genus Blissus - Chinch Bugs

nymph - Blissus leucopterus Chinch bug? - Blissus sweeti Chinch bug - Dorsal - Blissus leucopterus Anthocoridae nymph? - Blissus leucopterus How do you tell the chinch bug species apart? - Blissus Blissus leucopterus? - Blissus leucopterus Blissus leucopterus Blissus? - Blissus
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hemiptera (True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies)
Suborder Heteroptera (True Bugs)
Infraorder Pentatomomorpha
Superfamily Lygaeoidea
Family Blissidae
Genus Blissus (Chinch Bugs)
Explanation of Names
Blissus Burmeister 1835
Numbers
15 spp. in our area, 32 total(1)(2)
Size
3‒4 mm
Identification
see (3)(4)
Range
most of the New World; Old World forms treated as Blissus are not congeneric(1)
Habitat
fields, lawns, commercial crop plantations
Season
Mar‒Oct in se. US
Food
nymphs and adults feed on forage, lawn, wild, and crop grasses
Life Cycle
overwinter as adults among weeds/grasses near fields; adults emerge in spring and lay eggs singly behind leaf sheath or in soil at base of small plants; eggs hatch in a few days; nymphs feed on all parts of host plant; 5 nymphal instars; 2‒3 generations per year
Remarks
Severe infestations during early development may cause plants to wilt and die
Works Cited
1.The Lygaeidae of Florida (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae).
Slater & Baranowski. 1990. Florida Dept. of Ag. and Consumer Services, Gainesville. xv + 211 pp.
2.Dellapé P.M., Henry T.J. (2016) Lygaeoidea species file. Version 5.0
3.Biosystematics of the "Leucopterus Complex" of the genus Blissus (Heteroptera: Lygaeidae)
Leonard D.E. 1966. Bull. Conn. Agric. Exp. Sta. 677: 1-47.
4.A revision of the genus Blissus (Heteroptera: Lygaeidae) in Eastern North America
Leonard D.E. 1968. Ann. Ent. Soc. Am. 61: 239–250.