Overview
Members of this family are sometimes known as squash bugs or leaf-footed bugs and the head is often very small in relation to the size of the body.
Most coreids are phytophagous (plant feeders) or granivorous (seed feeders), though there are also records of them feeding on animal waste and dead animals. Many species of coreids are important pests on crops such as legumes, fruits and vegetables.
Host preference varies greatly within the Coreidae. Within a single genus some species may be host specific while others feed on a wide variety of plants. Most of the coreid economic pests can utilise a wide variety of plants as food.
Distribution
Australia possesses 2 subfamiles of the Coreidae. The Pseudophloeinae is the smaller of the two, containing a single tribe Clavigrallini with 2 genera,
Clavigralloides
and
Gralliclava
, each with 2 species. The other subfamily, Coreinae, is found throughout Australia and consists of 10 tribes, 38 genera and 72 species.