Blissidae

The Blissidae are a family in the Hemiptera (true bugs), comprising nearly 50 genera and 400 species. The group has often been treated as a subfamily of the Lygaeidae, but was resurrected as a full family by Thomas Henry (1997). The adult insects are elongate, typically 4 times as long as broad and in some species 6 or even 7 times. Short-winged forms are common in many species. All the species feed on the sap (rather than the seeds) of plants, mostly grasses, and the most of the species live between the sheaths of leaves. The most economically important species is the North American Chinch Bug Blissus leucopterus, a destructive pest of maize crops in the USA.