Blissus minutus (Blatchley) and Toonglasa umbrata (Distant): Seldom-collected native chinch bugs (Hemiptera : Lygaeoidea : Blissidae) as colonists of the African bunchgrass Eragrostis curvula, and their association with other grasses in the Southern

摘要

Weeping lovegrass (Eragrostis curvula; Poaceae), an African bunchgrass first introduced into the United States in the late 1920s, has acquired a diverse insect fauna in the southern states. Among the little-known native species that have colonized this chloridoid grass are the chinch bugs Blissus minutus (Blatchley) and Toonglasa umbrata (Distant). Known previously only from Florida, B. minutus is reported for the first time from Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas. This multivoltine grass generalist was collected most often on E. curvula (293 collections). Adults were found on 34 grasses of the subfamilies Aristoideae, Chloridoideae, and Panicoideae, with nymphs observed on 21 species, mainly chloridoids and panicoids. Toonglasa umbrata was collected in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas from seven native grasses and one introduced grass, in addition to weeping lovegrass (subfamilies Chloridoideae, Panicoideae, and Pooideae). It was syntopic with B. minutus on E. curvula in parts of Oklahoma and Texas and was the only blissid found on weeping lovegrass in more arid regions (Arizona, New Mexico, and western Texas).