PENTAT0MIM1. 
671 
the adult is the resting stage and that even in hot weather, they live 
for long periods waiting until food is plentiful enough to admit of their 
producing eggs and of the young surviving. 
Pentatomids are, in spite of their abundance and herbivorous habits, 
rarely destructive to crops. The reason is that the individual bugs do not 
extract sufficient sap from one plant or one twig to do harm, but they 
move about from plant to plant, sucking here and there, and not 
weakening the plant. It is only when they are exceptionally abundant 
or when they attack specially susceptible parts (e.g., developing 
grain heads), that they are destructive. Of the number of common 
species mentioned below, none are major pests, a few are minor 
occasional pests of little importance. 
The Pentatomids appear to be protected by the powerful scent 
produced by the scent-glands, as are most Heteroptera. This scent which 
is the volatilised oil, has a very strong effect on many animals and 
probably on predaceous insects; it is apparently not a complete 
protection as wasps and mantids have been observed to eat Pentatomids. 
The eggs are parasitised by Chalcidce , which constitute one check ; 
other checks are the slow reproduction and the limited duration of 
the seasons when abundant food makes reproduction possible. 
Pentatomidce are one of the largest families of the order, spread over 
the tropical and temperate zones, most abundant in tropical regions. 
The Indian fauna is Indo-Malayan mostly, with a number of Palsearctic 
hill forms which extend into the north and with the larger number of 
species known only from hill or submontane forest localities. The known 
plains fauna is a fraction only of the whole, though our knowledge of the 
plains species is defective and it is probable that the number of species 
in the plains is nearly as large as that of the sub-tropical forest and hill 
areas. The student will find descriptions of the Indian fauna in 
Distant’s Rhynchota in the Fauna of India, wherein 542 species are 
described with the addition of 46 species in the appendix to Volume IV. 
The 11 sub-families can be made out without difficulty, but the subse¬ 
quent classification and recognition of species is at first difficult without 
the aid of a good reference collection. 
Plataspidince .—The scutellum completely covers the abdomen, 
the hemelytra being folded away underneath. These little insects 
are clearly distinguishable and are fairly common. Brachyplatys and 
