With typical Hemipteran sucking mouthparts, they pierce plant tissues and cause damage ranging from leaf tattering and fruit blemishes, to complete death of shoots, branches or whole plants.

There has been evident speciation along the islands of the Malay Archipelago and there may be cryptic species in this genus.

sensu stricto are important 'new encounter' pests of SE Asian cocoa[2] including: Other cocoa Mirid pest species, very similar to Helopeltis, are the African species which were placed into Afropeltis by Schmitz (1968).

[3] These species usually have a lesser pests status than their Asian counterparts, with Sahlbergella singularis and Distantiella theobromae causing greatest cocoa tree and crop damage in Central and West Africa.

Monalonion species, belonging to the same tribe, are similarly minor pests of Latin American cocoa.