A wide variety of Hemiptera species are found on the leaves of palms in humid tropical zones. Many of them are highly polyphagous, and generally once adult, only accidentally end up on palm leaves, on which they can nevertheless feed. Other hemipterans spend the whole of their developmental cycle on palms, and some seem to live on palms alone. Most of the Hemiptera have no economic impact on their hosts, since their population levels are rarely high enough to cause significant damage. However, some Heteroptera: Coreoidea and Homoptera: Coccoidea species can be very damaging primary pests. Others amongst the Homoptera: Fulgoroidea, Cicadelloidea and Heteroptera: Pentatomoidea transmit serious diseases that have decimated oil palm and coconut plantations, for example coconut lethal yellowing in Africa and the Caribbean, and oil palm and coconut trypanosome diseases in Latin America. Lastly, some Heteroptera: Pentatomoidea and Reduvioidea species are natural enemies of lepidopteran caterpillars.

Males of the Triatominae, Panstrongylus megistus and Triatoma infestons, show a considerable difference concerning the time necessary for them to acquire the capacity for the first mating. P. megistus copulates from the eighth day of adult life, irrespective of whether or not it has been fed, while T. infestons copulates about 17 days after the imaginai moult and only after a blood-meal. These differences might be due to the secretory activity of T. infestons male accessory glands whose full development is reached only after two saturant blood-meals. If allatectomy is performed in male P. megistus soon after the imaginai moult, accumulation of secretion does not occur in 3 of the 4 accessory glands. Topical application of precocene II (200 μg/insect)a few days before or soon after the imaginai moult in P. megistus, halves the amount of secretion in the accessory glands.