Blissus leucopterus also known as the true chinch bug is a small North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

n insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

 in the order 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...

 and family Lygaeidae. It is the most commonly encountered member of the genus Blissus, which are all known as chinch bugs. A closely related species is Blissus insularis, the southern chinch bug.

The name of the chinch bug is derived from the Spanish word . This word has come to mean “pest” and used in many phrases such as - meaning tiresome or troublesome.

These bugs tend to gather on sunny open patches of turfgrass. Due to their small size, chinch bugs are hardly noticeable therefore it becomes a problem since they are considered pests that feed on stems of turfgrass.

Identification

Blissus leucopterus are approximately 4 millimetre (0.15748031496063 in) long when fully developed. The adults vary in colour from dark red to brown body with white wings and red legs. Young nymphs are usually bright red with half the size of the adult. A distinctable feature is the white band found on the nymph's abdomen. This band will be covered with wings and changes the colour to black during development.

Distribution

Blissus leucopterus are native to the Americas. They are found throughout the US, southern Canada, Mexico, and Central Americas.

Diet

Blissus leucopterus feed on plants belonging to the grass family; both wild and cultivated, such as wheat, rye, barley, oats, and corn. They suck the saps out of the growing plants. When the plants ripen or become dry, they travel to other growing plants to feed.

Life cycle

The lifespan of the Blissus leucopterus is a typically less than one year. The eggs of 2 generations are laid down from spring to summer where they develop into adults. During the fall, the adults from the 1st generation would die off, while the adults from the 2nd generation would retreat from the crops to look overwinter shelters. The adults would overwinter in any type of shelters they can find. Such places include hedgerows, road sides, bushy fence rows, edges of woodlands, soybean stubble, under tree barks, bunch grass, and inside field mice nests. Once they emerge from their hibernation, they return to the crop fields to feast and breed before their death.

Blissus leucopterus prefers hot, dry, and sunny conditions, while moist, warm, and humid conditions are detrimental for their population; these conditions promote the growth of fungus which is fatal to them. Other elements that reduce their population is heavy rains. Developing nymphs that are hit with rain become trapped in the soils, killing them. Their natural predators include the big-eye bug (Geocoris bullatis), and the tiny wasp (Eumicrosoma beneficum), which feast and parasitize on them.

Time line

• December – March: Blissus leucopterus are in hibernation.
• March – April: Daytime temperature stays above 20°C for a few hours. The Blissus leucopterus emerge from hibernation and begin mating.
• April – May: The adults fly to fields with small grains growing (such as wheat) and start sucking the saps out of them. They continue to mate while the females begin laying eggs on the lower leaves of plants, or on the roots. They will continue to do so for the next 30 days, laying a total of around 200 eggs.
• June: The nymphs develop for the next 30 days until they mature into adults. They’re wingless, reddish in color, and will progressively become darker with each moult until they’ve reached their adult stage with their wings fully developed. The nymphs also feed on the same growing plant until they start to ripen. This causes the population to seek out other growing crops (such as corn).
• July - October: The population of chinch bugs feast and breed on the new growing plant (such as corn), giving birth to a 2nd generation. They continue to feed on the crops, and the 2nd generation of chinch bugs become fully mature.
• November: The chinch bugs retreat from the crops to look for shelter for overwinter.

Human impact

The chinch bug, a native to the United States and common in Midwestern States, has had a great effect on humans. The chinch bug naturally feeds on wild prairie grasses but when the Midwestern states were settled in the nineteenth century and crops of wheat, corn, sorghum and other grains were planted, they adapted well to these new species as habitat and food species. Throughout the 20th century, the chinch bug was a major pest to farmers, as they quickly decimated corn or wheat fields. To deal with this problem, many farmers in the area changed their crops to soybeans, which were not a host to the chinch bug. This led to a huge decrease in the chinch bug population in this area. Today they are mostly a common lawn pest, and are commonly treated with pesticides and pest-resistant grasses.

External links

• http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2503.html
• http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/library/crpsl2/sections/s125_B.pdf
• http://www.ento.okstate.edu/ddd/insects/chinchbug.htm
• Blissus insularis, southern chinch bug on the University of Florida
  University of Florida
  The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
  
   / Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences
  Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences
  The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences is a federal-state-county partnership dedicated to developing knowledge in agriculture, human and natural resources, and the life sciences, and enhancing and sustaining the quality of human life by making that information...
  
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