The genus Placosternum Amyot & Serville (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) currently belongs to the tribe Pentatomini Leach with 13 described species. Species are medium to big size and are defined by having characteristic thoracic sternal structures and the pronotal lateral angles somewhat protruded and/or serrate. The genus follows a typical Indo-Malayan distribution limited by the Wallace line south-eastwards and extending to some regions of the eastern Palaearctic. The species in the genus can be considered somehow cryptic as morphologically they are similar and most of them have been classified as a single species. Additionally, as most of the species descriptions are extremely poor, after the revision of the type materials and material deposited in many of the worldwide institutions, we present the systematic knowledge on the genus.

Family Pentatomidae has a worldwide distribution, and is considered as one of the largest groups within the Heteroptera. The family is subdivided into 10 different morphological lineages (subfamilies): Aphylinae, Asopinae, Cyrtocorinae, Discocephalinae, Edessinae, Pentatominae, Phyllocephalinae, Podopinae, Serbaninae and Stirotarsinae, however the internal phylogeny and subfamily level relationships of the group remain unstudied. In this talk, molecular markers COI, 16S RNA, 28S RNA and 18S RNA with more than 200 species have been used to test their monophylies and relationships. Based on the results, reclassification and reinterpretation of the characters and groupings should be necessary to understand the evolutionary lineages that make up the Pentatomidae family.

Subfamily Asopinae (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) is known to have a unique behaviour among congeners of the family Pentatomidae. Their predatory behavior towards Lepidoptera and Coleoptera larvae has been numerously studied as some of the species have been used as biological control agents against insect pests. In this presentation a morphological taxonomical revision of the Korean Asopinae is made. New records and the first key from Korea are presented together with illustrations of all their habitus. Their possible role as Biological control agents in Korea is also discussed.