ABSTRACT
The greatest number of species of Coreidae occurs in the tropical parts of the world and relatively few, about 87, are known from America north of Mexico. All members of this family are essentially phytophagous and generally concentrate their attacks on tender shoots and leaves. Members of the genus Chelinidea Uhler concentrate their feeding on cacti. This food preference led to their introduction from the Americas into Australia here they contribute to the biological control of cacti, Opuntia spp., which escaped from cultivation and became serious pests on range land. To assure that the immature stages hatch on or close to an appropriate food plant—many of which are annuals — the highly mobile adults hibernate and in spring seek the newly developing food plants on which the eggs are laid in exposed clusters. Herrich-Schaeffer’s original description and its accompanying illustration for Gonocerus obsoletus present a species differing from all others in the region of this catalog.
