Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
 

Clickable Guide

Interactive image map to choose major taxa Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar

Upcoming Events

National Moth Week was July 19-27, and the Summer 2025 gathering in Louisiana, July 19-27

Photos of insects and people from the 2024 BugGuide gathering in Idaho July 24-27

Moth submissions from National Moth Week 2024

Photos of insects and people from the 2022 BugGuide gathering in New Mexico, July 20-24

Photos of insects and people from the Spring 2021 gathering in Louisiana, April 28-May 2

Photos of insects and people from the 2019 gathering in Louisiana, July 25-27

Family Blissidae

Representative Images

True Bug - Blissus leucopterus Chinch Bug? - Ischnodemus conicus Ischnodemus falicus (Say) - Ischnodemus falicus Blissidae - Blissus Bug - Ischnodemus falicus Blissidae, dorsal - Toonglasa umbrata - male Female, Toonglasa umbrata? - Toonglasa umbrata - female Blissidae, right hand one - Ischnodemus falicus

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

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

formerly treated under Lygaeidae; revised in (1)

Explanation of Names

Blissidae Stål 1862

Numbers

30 spp. in 4 genera in our area,* >420 spp. in 55 genera worldwide(2)(3)(4)
*Blissus 16 spp., Ischnodemus 12, Toonglasa 1, Wheelerodemus 1

Size

3‒15+ mm worldwide(5)

Identification

see (1)(6)

Range

throughout NA; primarily tropical globally, with several centers of endemism on various continents; Ischnodemus is the only subcosmopolitan genus (mostly tropical)(7)

Food

hosts: various monocots; blissids often live cryptically in leaf-sheaths (laminaphiles) and, unlike most lygaeoids, feed on vegetative parts(7); our spp. on grasses(8)

Works Cited

1.The systematics, phylogeny, and zoogeography of the Blissinae of the world (Hemiptera, Lygaeidae)
J. A. Slater. 1979. Bulletin of the AMNH, Vol. 165, article 1.
2.Catalog of the Heteroptera, or True Bugs of Canada and the Continental United States
Thomas J. Henry, Richard C. Froeschner. 1988. Brill Academic Publishers.
3.Dellapé P.M., Henry T.J. (2016‒) Lygaeoidea species file
4.Wheelerodemus muhlenbergiae, a new genus and new species of Blissidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Lygaeoidea) from Okla. and Texas.
Henry, T.J., Sweet, M.H. 2015. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington. 117(2): 151-161.
5.Biodiversity of the Heteroptera
Henry T.J. 2009. In: Foottit R.G., Adler P.H., eds. Insect biodiversity: Science and society. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell: 223−263.
6.Seed Bugs of Virginia (Heteroptera: Lygaeidae)
Richard L. Hoffman. 1996. Virginia Museum of Natural History.
7.Zoological catalogue of Australia: Hemiptera: Heteroptera (Pentatomomorpha)
Cassis G., Gross G.F. 2002. CSIRO Publishing, 751 pp.
8.How to Know the True Bugs
Slater, James A., and Baranowski, Richard M. 1978. Wm. C. Brown Company.
Contributed by Eric R. Eaton on 8 March, 2006 - 2:32pm
Additional contributions by Mike Quinn, Ted Kropiewnicki, v belov
Last updated 22 January, 2025 - 4:08pm

Disclaimer: Dedicated naturalists volunteer their time and resources here to provide this service. We strive to provide accurate information, but we are mostly just amateurs attempting to make sense of a diverse natural world. If you need expert professional advice, contact your local extension office.

Contributors own the copyright to and are solely responsible for contributed content.
Click the contributor's name for licensing and usage information.
Everything else copyright © 2003-2025 Iowa State University, unless otherwise noted.

Bugguide is hosted by:

Plant Pathology, Entomology and Microbiology at Iowa State University logo

Printer Friendly Version 		Terms of Use
Privacy Statement
Site Map
Contact