COREIDvE. 
681 
the same habits as the adults. There is very little on record as to the 
food of these insects though what is known points to them being exclu¬ 
sively feeders on plant sap. Whether they have special food-plants 
Fig. 443— Homceocerus inornatus. Nymph. 
or not is scarcely known; our common species have special food-plants 
among crops and probably all feed only on particular plants, and their 
increase and spread is, therefore, dependent upon their food-plants. One 
only is a real pest in India, the Dice bug, Leptocorisa varicornis, Fabr., 
injuring the developing seed of rice, and millets. Like other Heteroptera, 
their scent is not the least striking feature of them and though these 
scents are not wholly disagreeable, they are powerful. A rice field 
infested by Leptocorisa can sometimes be known from afar and it is 
probable that the scent is ordinarily a protection. 
Distant enumerates 143 species as Indian, adding 33 in the appendix 
to Volume IV, principally hill and forest species. A small number are com- 
