Hemipteran Pests: Suborder Heteroptera

This chapter looks at Hemipteran pests. Turfgrass-infesting chinch bugs are true bugs in the suborder Heteroptera, family Blissidae, subfamily Blissinae, originally known as the “chinch bug family.” The family Blissidae has about 50 genera and 400 species, fewer than 10 of which are economically important to humans. Four genera are found in North America, including 30 species that attack grasses and sedges, but only the genus Blissus contains serious turfgrass pests. Adult chinch bugs in the family Blissidae are elongate, usually four times as long as broad. Short-winged (brachypterous) and long-winged (macropterous) forms exist in numerous species. The chapter then considers the Blissus chinch bugs, the hairy chinch bug, the southern chinch bug, the western chinch bug, and the common chinch bug.

Managing Southern Chinch Bug in Warm Season Turfgrasses

Southern chinch bug, Blissus isularis Barber, is the most damaging insect pest of St. Augustinegrass in the United States. St. Augustinegrass is the most common turfgrass used in Florida. The ubiquity of this single turfgrass species makes southern chinch bug an economically important pest in the state. In fact, chinch bugs cost Florida homeowners and professionals millions of dollars every year. This 7-page fact sheet written by Eileen A. Buss, Brianna M. Whitman, and Adam G. Dale and published by the UF/IFAS Department of Entomology and Nematology describes the biology of the pest and the damage it causes and lists ways to scout and monitor for chinch bugs and some strategies for control of the pest.https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/lh036

Culturing and Characterization of Gut Symbiont Burkholderia spp. from the Southern Chinch Bug, Blissus insularis (Hemiptera: Blissidae)

ABSTRACTThe phloem-feeding Southern chinch bug,Blissus insularis, harbors a high density of the exocellular bacterial symbiontBurkholderiain the lumen of specialized midgut crypts. Here we developed an organ culture method that initially involved incubating theB. insulariscrypts in osmotically balanced insect cell culture medium. This approach enabled the crypt-inhabitingBurkholderiaspp. to make a transition to anin vitroenvironment and to be subsequently cultured in standard bacteriological media. Examinations using ribotyping and BOX-PCR fingerprinting techniques demonstrated that mostin vitro-produced bacterial cultures were identical to their crypt-inhabitingBurkholderiacounterparts. Genomic and physiological analyses of gut-symbioticBurkholderiaspp. that were isolated individually from two separateB. insularislaboratory colonies revealed that the majority of individual insects harbored a singleBurkholderiaribotype in their midgut crypts, resulting in a diverseBurkholderiacommunity within each colony. The diversity was also exhibited by the phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of theseBurkholderiacultures. Access to cultures of crypt-inhabiting bacteria provides an opportunity to investigate the interaction between symbioticBurkholderiaspp. and theB. insularishost. Furthermore, the culturing method provides an alternative strategy for establishingin vitrocultures of other fastidious insect-associated bacterial symbionts.IMPORTANCEAn organ culture method was developed to establishin vitrocultures of a fastidiousBurkholderiasymbiont associated with the midgut crypts of the Southern chinch bug,Blissus insularis. The identities of the resulting cultures were confirmed using the genomic and physiological features ofBurkholderiacultures isolated fromB. insulariscrypts, showing that host insects maintained the diversity ofBurkholderiaspp. over multiple generations. The availability of characterized gut-symbioticBurkholderiacultures provides a resource for genetic manipulation of these bacteria and for examination of the mechanisms underlying insect-bacterium symbiosis.