Cicadellinae of Ecuador and Cicadellidae of Galápagos

ABSTRACT

An annotated list of the Cicadellinae (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadellidae) of Ecuador is presented. The collection in the Museum of Zoology Invertebrates Section of the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (QCAZ) is comprised of 3763 specimens of Cicadellidae of which 2806 were in the subfamily Cicadellinae. These specimens were identified as belonging to 87 species. The collection contains an additional 28 species that appear to represent undescribed species. The specimens were distributed among all provinces of Ecuador except the new, small province of Santa Elena on the coast. The specimens were from every broad geographic region of Ecuador: Coast, Western Cloud Forest, Highlands, Eastern Cloud Forest and Amazonia. Many species were collected in multiple geographic regions. There are 18 new country records in this collection. The literature was searched for additional species of Cicadellinae and an additional 166 species were identified as part of the Ecuadorian fauna for a total of 253 species. Twenty-four species have host records that indicate they have the potential to be pests of cultivated and orchard crops. Twenty-four species of Cicadellidae in 16 genera are listed for the Galápagos Islands and many are considered endemic.

KEYWORDS:

• Cicadellidae
• Cicadellinae
• Ecuador
• Galápagos

Acknowledgments

We thank the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador for continued support of the Museum of Zoology-Invertebrates Section. The work reported in this manuscript was funded under Project K13038 from the Office of Research and Post-graduate Studies at PUCE. Fernanda Salazar provided important support during PL’s extended visit to the Museum in Quito. The staff of the Yasuní Scientific Station provided essential logistical support for collecting activity at the Station. FONDECYT of Perú provided funding for PL’s visit to the Museum at PUCE to examine the collection. Dr. Charles Bartlett, University of Delaware, provided a valuable pre-publication review of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador [K13038].