New records of Proconiini Stål, 1869 (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Cicadellinae) for the Pará State, Brazil

28, 2022. Abstract. We present new records of Proconiini Stål, 1869 (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Cicadellinae) for the Pará State, Brazil. Most specimens were collected in canopy of Tapajós National Forest. Diestostemma cavichiolii Pinto, Mejdalani & Takiya, 2017 is the most abundant species, while Diestostemma dubium Young, 1968 and Acrogonia albertoi Silva, Cavichioli, Takiya & Mejdalani, 2017 had less than five specimens collected. In addition, maps with geographical distribution of the species here studied

Cicadellidae is the largest family of Hemiptera, and their members are known as leafhoppers and sharpshooters, including insects that feed on the xylem, phloem or mesophile of vascular plants (Grazia et al. 2012). The subfamily Cicadellinae Latreille, 1825 comprises two tribes, Cicadellini Latreille, 1825 and Proconiini Stål, 1869 with around 2,400 species distributed worldwide (Wilson et al. 2009). This subfamily is particularly diverse in the Neotropical region (Young 1968), and Proconiini is endemic to American continent (McKamey 2007).
Proconiini have been diagnosed as vectors of Xylella fastidiosa Wells et al., 1987 -a bacterium that lives in the xylem, causing diseases to several plants (Marucci et al. 2002) then a lot of genera are important to many agricultural crops (Hickel et al. 2001;Paradell et al. 2012;Azevedo & Lima 2015;Carvalho et al. 2015). Specifically, some species of Acrogonia Stål, 1869 are recorded in many regions of Brazil, and many species are potential vectors of X. fastidiosa (Gonçalves et al. 2008;Azevedo & Lima 2015;Carvalho et al. 2015;Hidalgo & Molina 2015). Meanwhile, the economic importance of Diestostemma Amyot & Serville, 1843 is unknown. Recent studies show the distribution of Acrogonia and Diestostemma for different regions of Brazil, including the Amazon, and the last record of these two genera for Pará is from Acrogonia albertoi Silva, Cavichioli, Takiya & Mejdalani, 2017(Pinto et al. 2017Silva et al. 2017;Takiya & Dmitriev 2019).
In this work, we update the geographic distribution of one species of Acrogonia and two species of Diestostemma (Proconiini) with the inclusion of new records, these two genera were the most abundant Proconiini genera collected in the samples. These new records increase the known country-level diversity of the Neotropical leafhoppers.
The material here used was provided by MS dissertation of Margarida P. de Freitas, with the aim of investigating the vertical stratification of Arctiini (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae). The collects were carried out in two points of the Tapajós National Forest (FLONA Tapajós) (02051'23.3'' S, 54057'31.0'' W and 03001'05.6'' S, 54058'10.4'' W). The first point is located at km 67 and the second at km 83 of highway BR-163 (Santarém-Cuiabá direction), in the municipality of Belterra, Pará State, Brazil. The vegetation of the studied area is characterized as a terra-firme ombrophilous dense forest with a canopy reaching 40 m high and emergent trees reaching up to 50 m (Henriques et al. 2008).
Four light traps (Pennsylvania) were installed on two metallic towers of "The Large Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Research Program in the Amazon" at FLONA Tapajós. They were mounted at the following heights: ground level (understory) and 30 meters high (canopy). The traps remained active for two consecutive days during 12 consecutive months, between December 2012 and November 2013. A total of two specimens of Acrogonia and 14 specimens of Diestostemma were collected, all males. The canopy was the strata with the highest number of specimens collected (Tab. 1). In this work, for the first time, Acrogonia and Diestostemma were collected in the canopy of the Amazonian rain forest. We, therefore, present the second record for A. albertoi and the first record for two species of Diestostemma to Pará. All examined specimens are deposited in the "Laboratório de Entomologia da Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará (LABEN)". The new record of these species to Pará it is an addition to the State's fauna, and also shows the importance of collecting in different strata of Amazonian forest that can harbor biodiversity to be discovered. Finally, we present an updated distribution map for the studied species. The map was made on the SimpleMappr website (Shorthouse 2010).

Diestostemma dubium
Note: The material used in the article was preserved in alcohol, which led to discoloration of the specimens and even a decrease in the number of brochosomes.