Checklist dos louva-a-deus (Insecta - Mantodea) do Estado da Paraíba

Abstract

Mantodea is an order of hemimetabolous insects with more than 2.500 species can be found in all but the poles. They are animals that evolved from the cockroaches of the fossil family Liberiblattinidae thanks to their predatory way of life. Along with cockroaches and termites form the superordinate Dictyoptera. They have as characteristics the anterior raptorial legs and the great capacity of camouflage that they use to avoid predators as well as to obtain food. They are predators and can capture different types of prey such as other arthropods and even small vertebrates. They reproduce from eggs that are deposited inside a structure called ootheca, which serves to protect them against predation and infections. They are known to practice sexual cannibalism or androphagia, but such behavior has not been recorded in tropical species. The Neotropical region has the third largest diversity of species, but they are still not well known because of factors such as the few people studying the group and because the order still has many taxonomic problems, often caused by nomenclature errors and wrong identifications, which makes it difficult to know the diversity of species and the understanding of their biogeographical distribution, besides disrupting phylogenetic studies. Brazil is the country with the largest number of species, but places like the Northeast Region are still scarcely studied. This work aims to characterize the diversity of species of mantids in Paraiba and to increase knowledge about the order in the Northeast Region. A total of 223 individuals, from 20 different sites, were collected in the Atlantic Rainforest and Caatinga. It was identified a total of 30 species grouped in 21 genera and 9 families. Acanthops falcataria, Brunneria brasiliensis, Chaeteessa filata, Macromantis hyalina, Macromusonia major, Musoniella brasiliensis, Paraphotina caatingaensis, Parastagmatoptera sp., Parastagmatoptera pellucida, Photina sp., Stagmatoptera pia, Thesprotia infumata, Thesprotia macilenta and Velox wielandi are new records for the state. The number of species must be higher than that found, because there are localities that have not yet been searched, especially in the Caatinga, in addition, sites where that have been made collections must have to be revisited.