Chinch Bug, Blissus leucopterus (Say) (Hemiptera: Blissidae)

The chinch bug, Blissus leucopterus, is found through much of the eastern United States and southern Canada, west to about the Rocky Mountains. However, it is absent from the Gulf Coast region, where it is replaced by a closely related species, the southern chinch bug, Blissus insularis Barber. The two species have overlapping ranges in portions of the southern states from North and South Carolina through central Georgia and west to Texas. Southern chinch bug feeds only on lawn and forage grasses, particularly St. Augustine grass, and is not a food crop pest. Other species of Blissus occur in both eastern and western states but they are of little consequence. The Blissus spp. may have dispersed northwards from South America, but if so they apparently dispersed in pre-colonial times, as there is no record of their introduction.

The range of B. leucopterus can be subdivided because two discrete subspecies exist; B. leucopterus hirtus Montandon in the northeast, and B. leucopterus...