Tortoise beetles (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, Cassidinae) captured with Malaise traps on PROFAUPAR and PROVIVE projects (Paraná, South Brazil)

: A list of Cassidinae s. str. species collected with Malaise traps on PROFAUPAR and PROVIVE projects conducted in Paraná, Southern Brazil, is presented. Along four years of sampling, 176 specimens of Cassidinae s.str. were collected totalizing 16 genera and 39 species. Among them, 22 species represent new records to Paraná, 11 are new registers to South Brazil and one species, registered to Brazil for the first time. The richest genera were Charidotis , with 12 species, followed by Microctenochira , with seven species and Charidotella , with three species. The most abundant species was Charidotis with 26 specimens.

Detailed information of each site (i.e., floristic description, climatic data and phytogeografic classification) is available in Marinoni and Dutra (1993).
The second project (PROVIVE) assessed the entomofauna in areas with different levels of conservation resulting from different degrees of anthropogenic interference, with sampling being performed in five areas of the "Parque Estadual de Vila Velha, Ponta Grossa", during two years, from September 1999 to August 2001 (Ganho and Marinoni 2003). The areas are: (1) an edge area of transition between field and Araucaria Forest; (2) unmanaged Araucaria reforestation; and three areas in different successional stages; (3) initial to intermediary succession, (4) intermediary to advanced succession, and (5) advanced succession. It is important to highlight the area 4 was the same point surveyed by PROFAUPAR project to the locality "Ponta Grossa". Detailed information about these areas could be found in Ganho and Marinoni (2003).

Data Collection
One Malaise trap was installed in each locality of the PROFAUPAR and in each area of the PROVIVE and the samples were removed weekly during the two years of each project. The Cassidinae s. str. specimens were identified using relevant bibliography and compared with the material from the Coleção Entomológica Pe. J. S. Moure (DZUP). All specimens were deposited in DZUP collection of the Zoology Department of the Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR) in Curitiba (Paraná state, Brazil).

Results and Discussion
Among 176 specimens, belonging to 39 species of 16 genera of Cassidinae s. str. sampled (Table I), 23 were collected during PROFAUPAR, whereas during PROVIVE representatives of 30 species were sampled, of which 13 in common with those from PROFAUPAR. Among the localities sampled by the PROFAUPAR project, Ponta Grossa was the most diverse. The richest genera were Charidotis with 12 species, Microctenochira with eight species and Charidotella with three species. The most abundant species was Charidotis consentanea (Boheman, 1855) with 26 specimens. Of the 39 species collected, 22 are registered for the first time to Paraná, 11 species are new records to South Brazil, and Microctenochira achardi (Spaeth, 1926) represents a new record to Brazil ( Figure  2J). Charidotis furunculus (Boheman, 1855) ( Figure 2D), a new record to Southern Brazil, presents the widest distribution area, having been collected in four localities: Antonina, Guarapuava, Jundiaí do Sul and Ponta Grossa (Table 1).
Among Chrysomelidae subfamilies, Galerucinae is the most sampled by Malaise trap, whereas the Cassidinae s. str. are among the less collected (Linzmeier et al. 2006;Ganho and Marinoni 2003). This scarceness of Cassidinae s. str. in passive collection techniques is possibly due to the fact that adults are rather sessile (Jolivet and Hawkeswood 1995), therefore Malaise, light and pitfalls traps are usually less effective than manual collecting, although not so much time consuming (Flinte et al. 2009). However, despite this method is not indicated to capture Cassidinae s. str., this study verified that more than 50% of the species collected are new records to Paraná/Southern Brazil and one species is a new record to Brazil. This indicates that the method was able to collect a significant sample of Cassidinae s. str. species in areas without any kind of insect collecting. We observe that 32 of the 39 species collected are representatives of the Cassidini tribe. Most of Cassidini species are small (less than 10mm), good flyers, very diverse and abundant. Since the Malaise trap was built to catch insects when they are flying, these species are expected to be the more frequent than other Cassidinae s. str. in such samplings. Hand-collecting is the most common method for collect Cassidinae s. str., but requires a great effort searching the host plants and often fail to obtain a good representation of the area. In this way, even if the purpose of the projects was not directly to capture these species, the fauna sampled by these projects was significant for recognition of species that occurring in Paraná and improve the knowledge of the distribution areas for the group.

Tribe Goniocheniini Spaeth, 1942
Goniocheniini presents five genera and 30 species (Borowiec and Swietojanska 2012). In the present work were find one genera and one species. The geographic distribution records follow Borowiec and Swietojanska (2012).

Tribe Ischyrosonychini Chapuis, 1875
Ischyrosonychini presents seven genera and 68 species (Borowiec and Swietojanska 2012). In the present work were find one genera, two species and one new distribution record. The geographic distribution records follow Borowiec and Swietojanska (2012). (**) New record to South Brazil.

Tribe Mesomphaliini Hope, 1940
Mesomphaliini presents 24 genera and 552 species (Borowiec and Swietojanska 2012). In the present work were find two genera and three species. The geographic distribution records follow Borowiec and Swietojanska (2012).

Tribe Spilophorini Chapuis, 1875
Spilophorini presents two genera and 30 species (Borowiec and Swietojanska 2012). In the present work we find one genera and one species. The geographic distribution record follows Borowiec and Swietojanska (2012).