Review of paraphotina (Mantodea: Photinaidae)

Abstract

The number of studies on Neotropical mantises has been growing in recent years, and the systematics of Mantodea is now a dynamic field with noteworthy contributions. Several taxonomic revisions have been published recently. The taxonomy of Paraphotina Giglio-Tos, 1915 is reviewed as part of current studies on systematics of Neotropical Mantodea. Currently, Paraphotina contains four species from South America: P. caatingaensis (Menezes & Bravo, 2013) comb. nov., P. insolita (Rehn, 1941), P. occidentalis Lombardo, 1998 and P. reticulata (Saussure, 1871). Paraphotina venezuelana Beier, 1963 is a new junior synonym of P. insolita. Keys for the Paraphotina species are proposed. The distribution of Paraphotina species is apparently correlates with areas of endemism in the Amazonian and Cerrado regions.