Diet

• Adults and nymphs: Primarily plant-feeding, using their piercing-sucking mouthparts to obtain fluids from leaves, stems, flowers, fruits and seeds.

• Pachycorinae includes species associated with a wide variety of woody and herbaceous plants, although host-plant preferences vary considerably between genera and species.

Range

• Pachycorinae is predominantly Neotropical, with species occurring from the southern United States through Mexico and Central America and throughout much of South America and the Caribbean.

• Around Zihua, Pachycorinae would likely be considered occasional to locally common, particularly in tropical dry forest, scrub and other warm, vegetated habitats.

Habitat

• Pachycorinae species occur in tropical and subtropical woodland, tropical dry forest, scrub, forest margins, grassland and disturbed vegetation.

• They are generally associated with plants and may be found on shrubs, trees, vines and herbaceous vegetation.

• Around Zihua, suitable habitat includes tropical deciduous forest, thorn scrub, dry hillsides, forest edges, gardens, agricultural areas and roadside vegetation.

• Mexico's Pacific-slope dry forests provide particularly suitable conditions for many members of the subfamily.

Size

• Pachycorinae contains small to medium-sized, broadly oval shield bugs, with considerable variation in size and shape between genera.

• The greatly enlarged scutellum covers most or virtually all of the abdomen and wings, producing the characteristic shield-like appearance of Scutelleridae.

• Many species are remarkably colourful, with metallic, red, orange, yellow, black or brown markings; some species are highly variable in colour pattern.