Family BLISSIDAE

Museums

Museum list

Regional Maps

Family BLISSIDAE

Compiler and date details

15 February 2002

Introduction

The Blissidae or chinch bugs are a cosmopolitan family of monocot-feeding lygaeoid bugs. The family comprises 50 genera and 435 species (Slater & O'Donnell 1995, Zoological Record 1995–2001) and is represented in Australia by nine genera and 15 species.

Stål (1862) first proposed suprageneric status for the group (as Blissida). Slater (1979) established the monophyly of the chinch bugs and maintained them as a subfamily of Lygaeidae sensu lato. Henry (1997) in redefining the in-group relationships of the Lygaeoidea raised the Blissidae (including the Slaterellinae) to family status. He recognised the Blissidae as the sister-group to the Lygaeidae + Piesmatidae + Cryptorhamphidae + Cymidae + Ninidae + Malcidae + Colobathristidae + Berytidae. The classification used in the Catalogue is as follows: Blissidae: Blissinae and Slaterellinae.

Slater & Ashlock (1976) and Slater (1979) established the in-group relationships of the blissid genera. Their phylogenies were based on larval (abdominal sclerotisation, dorsal abdominal glands) and adult characters (forefemora, male phallus and parameres, sperm reservoir, ovipositor). They did not recognise any suprageneric status for the Australian endemic genus Slaterellus Drake and Davis, an autapomorphic taxon elevated to subfamily by Drake & Davis (1959). Slater (1979) established that the most speciose blissid genera (Blissus Burmeister, Dimorphopterus Stål, Ischnodemus Fieber, Macropes Motschulsky and Patritius Distant) are all paraphyletic, but maintained their generic status.

Slater (1979) described key features of blissid distribution. The family is primarily tropical with centres of endemism in southern Africa and Madagascar, the Oriental Region, and tropical areas of Central and South America. Blissidae are absent from New Zealand. Thirty-six of the 50 described genera contain five or less species, nineteen of them monotypic, and all these genera have restricted distributions. Generic endemism is moderately high for the Oriental, Afrotropical and Australian Regions, and is highest for the Neotropical Region. Ischnodemus is the only genus that exhibits a near cosmopolitan distribution (mostly tropical). Components of the Blissidae have southern African and South American (e.g. species of Ischnodemus), Oriental and Neotropical, and Madagascan and southern African area relationships.

The Australian fauna is characterised by two distinct components, probably of separate origins. Several genera found in Australia are primarily Oriental or Indo-Pacific in distribution (Dentisblissus Slater, Dimorphopterus Stål, Iphicrates Distant and Macropes). Iphicrates comprises 15 species in the Oriental and Australian Regions, and is represented in Australia by four species, two of which are known from northern Queensland and New Guinea. Macropes is primarily distributed in the Oriental Region and contains 40 species, with M. australis (Distant) found in northern and eastern Australia, as well as New Guinea. Dimorphopterus is distributed throughout the Eastern Hemisphere tropics, and is represented in Australia by D. cornutus Slater (endemic temperate species) and D. pilosus (Barber) (Australia, Melanesia and Micronesia). Dentisblissus is restricted to the Australian Region and is represented in Australia by two endemic species and four other species that are found in both northern Queensland and New Guinea.

The remainder of the Australian blissid fauna is autochthonous—four genera and an autapomorphic species of Ischnodemus. Slater (1979, 1986) proposed that these taxa had probable Gondwanan affinities. He indicated that Australademus Slater & Sweet, Heinsius Distant and Slaterellus probably form a monophyletic group, based on the presence of scale-like setae, short thick antennae, and features of the sperm reservoir. Australodemus elongatus Slater & Sweet and Archaeodemus woodwardi Slater are restricted to temperate south-eastern Australia. Heinsius contains two species that are found in the Australian subtropics and tropics. Slaterellus hackeri is broadly distributed in eastern Australia. Ischnodemus is represented in Australia by I. sordidus Slater, an endemic species of south-western Western Australia. Slater (1979) reported that this species has a basal position within the genus and that its sister-species occurs in India, Sri Lanka and South Africa.

Slater (1979) monographed the world fauna, as well as providing a number of significant regional studies (Slater & Ahmad 1964—Australian Region; Slater 1967—Madagascar; Slater et al. 1969; Slater 1968—Oriental and Australian Regions; Slater & Wilcox 1973—southern Africa); and generic revisions (Slater 1961a—Dentisblissus; Slater 1961b—Iphicrates; Slater & Wilcox 1969—Afrotropical Ischnodemus; Slater & Harrington 1970—Neotropical Ischnodemus; Slater 1974—Dimorphopterus). Péricart (1998) revised the western Palaearctic fauna and provided notes on biology. Slater (1964) and Slater & O'Donnell (1995) catalogued the world fauna.

Blissidae are closely associated with a broad range of monocots and often live cryptically in basal leaf-sheaths (laminaphiles). Unlike most of their granivorous lygaeoid relatives, blissids feed on vegetative plant parts. Chinch bugs appear to be mostly monophagous or feed on a few closely related plant species. Slater (1976) documented the host plants of the chinch bugs and analysed their associations in an evolutionary context. The majority of species are found on grasses (Poaceae) and a few are known to feed on sedges (Cyperacaeae) and Restionaceae. Isolated records also exist for the Zingiberales, Juncales, Liliales, and Typhales. Slater speculated that blissids had a southern origin, possibly feeding on the seeds of lilies and subsequently adapting to sap-feeding on Restionaceae.

Blissids are found on plants in a wide range of grass tribes, predominantly on Panicoideae, Festucoideae, Bambusoideae and Eragrostoideae. The host plant associations of the Australian fauna are unknown. Iphicrates angulatus Slater, which is recorded here for the first time from Australia, is known extralimitally from the bamboo species, Arundinaria cobonii Bailey. Recent works by Zheng (1994) and Slater & Brailovsky (1983, 1990—Toonglassa Distant) suggest that bamboo-feeding is very common amongst chinch bugs.

Sweet (2000) reviewed aspects of chinch bug biology and reported that several species are serious pest of grasses. Globally they are known pests of grain crops (barley, corn, millet, oats, rye, sorghum and wheat) and grasses that are used in sugar production and production of alcoholic beverages, and for lawns and pastures. Sweet (2000) argues that polyphagous blissids are more likely to be of economic importance. There are no records of chinch bugs causing economic loss in Australia.

Diagnosis

Blissids vary greatly in body size and shape, ranging from short and stout to elongate and slender species. The body is covered with a pruinose layer of minute spicules. The abdominal spiracles are mostly dorsal and the seventh are ventral. The male genital segment possesses a tubercle. The sperm reservoirs are winged (Slater 1979; Henry 1997). The larval dorsal abdominal glands are present at the junction of terga IV/V and V/VI. (Slater 1979; Henry 1997)