Proneella Carvalho, 1960

Mingheti, Eugenia, Montemayor, Sara Itzel & Dellapé, Pablo Matías, 2025, Phylogenetic revision of the Neella-Neoneella complex (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae: Bryocorinae), with description of five new genera, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 204 (2) : -

Proneella Carvalho, 1960

( Figs 1G, H, 2H, 5L, N, 6)

Tope species: Proneella boliviana Carvalho, 1960 . By original designation.

Proneella Carvalho, 1960: 48 , 50–52, 55–59 (original description); Carvalho and Froeschner, 1987: 133 (list); Carvalho and Ferreira, 1995: 470, 472 (key). Schuh, 2002–13 (online catalogue).

Included species: P. boliviana Carvalho, 1960

P. peruana Carvalho, 1960

Diagnosis: Orange to reddish, some specimens with brown to black areas; eyes large and sessile; vertex flat; inner margin of eye at level with lateral margins of collar; labium extending to metacoxae; embolium bent upwards; sexual dimorphism in length of cuneus, males with cuneus more developed and its apex ataining posterior margin of membrane, without contacting each other in resting position, vein of cell angled before middle of membrane; genital capsule with sclerotizations in lef margin; subgenital plate with two projections, one dentated in the right and one in the lef; apex of lef paramere hooked; and seminal duct tapering.

Redescription: Male. TBL 4.32–6.06; PBL 4.37–5.98; BW 2.30– 2.75. Female. TBL 4.84; PBL 4.56; BW 2.35. Coloration: Head: orange to reddish; eyes black or silver; antennal segments I–II orange to reddish or brown; III, pale yellow to reddish; IV, brown. Torax: pronotum orange to reddish; mesoscutum yellow to reddish; scutellum reddish or blackish; pleura yellow to reddish. Hemelytron: orange to reddish, or yellow to reddish with some reddish or brown areas on corium, clavus and/or cuneus; membrane yellow or blackish; veins yellow to reddish. Legs: coxae, femora, and tibiae orange to reddish, sometimes apex brown; tarsi yellow; claws brown. Abdomen: yellow to orange or reddish to brown reddish. Surface: Shiny; posterior pronotal lobe evenly punctate; head and pronotum with short and recumbent setae; labium with semierect setae; antennal with abundant semierect and sparce erect setae; hemelytra with semierect setae; veins with very short and recumbent setae; pleura and abdomen with semierect setae, longer than dorsal; coxae, trochanters, femora, and tarsi with short and recumbent or semierect setae; femora with dorsal setae as long as ventral; tibiae with abundant recumbent and semierect setae. Structure: Head: more than 2× as wide as long; clypeus not prominent, rounded in lateral view; frons rounded in lateral view; vertex flat, wider than head length; eyes large, more than half of head height, sessile, upper margin ataining dorsal margin of head, inner margin straight, at level with lateral margins of collar; gula very short; antennal segment I straight; II, widened centrally or distally, more than 2.5× as long as I; III, tapering towards apex, thinner than II; IV, straight, thinner than III. Torax: anterior margin of collar concave and posterior margin straight; calli slightly evident, small, separated in central area, ataining or not lateral margins of pronotum; posterior pronotal lobe with shallow lateral depressions before humeral angles; posterior margin straight; mesoscutum exposed or not; scutellum with basal depression. Hemelytron with lateral margins convex in males, less evident in females; embolium bent upwards; medial fracture shorter than half of corium; claval commissure longer than scutellum and half of pronotum length combined; anterior half of medial fracture adjacent to R + M vein, posterior half separated from R + M vein; male with apex of cuneus ataining posterior margin of membrane and not contacting each other with hemelytra in resting position, inner margin concave; females with shorter cuneus, not ataining posterior margin of membrane and not contacting each other; veins angled in middle of membrane and before apex of cuneus. Legs: profemora widened basally; meso- and metafemora straight; metafemora slightly curved; protibiae slightly flatened distally; meso- and metatibiae straight. Male genitalia: Genital capsule shorter than a third of abdomen length; right wall longer than lef; genital opening broad, facing dorsally; dorsal wall reduced, with a projection in lef margin; ventral wall more developed than dorsal; posterior margin convex; subgenital plate with lef and right projections, ventral to parameres insertion, lef one as a short wall and right larger, curved and with two tiny basal teeth. Lef paramere strongly curved, hook-shaped; basal process narrow; body wide; apical process tapering towards curved apex. Right paramere curved; basal process narrow; body wide initially, with basal and broad expansion; apical process narrow. Aedeagus small and simple; phallotheca sclerotized, except base; seminal duct membranous and not folded initially, sclerotized posterior to its distal curvature; extending to apex of phallotheca and beyond it; endosoma sclerotized basally.

Distribution: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru ( Fig. 6).

Discussion: Carvalho (1960), in the original description of the genus, stated that Proneella is closely related to Adneella , Neella , Neoneella , and Paraneella . In our analysis Proneella is recovered as monophyletic supported by 10 synapomorphies: five continuous characters: relations of claval commissure length/ scutellum length (13: 0.190 –0.196), cuneus length/anterior cuneal margin width (15: 0.165 –0.239) genital capsule length/ abdomen length (16:0.014), genital capsule width/genital capsule height (17:0.096), aedeagus length/genital capsule length (18:0.114), three discrete contradictory synapomorphic characters: eyes without projection (23:0), cuneus sexually dimorphic (68:1), and seminal duct tapering (152:1), and two discrete synapomorphic characters: basal blunt tooth in the right process of the subgenital plate (115:1), and distal extreme of lef paramere hook shaped (138:1). Proneella is recovered as the sister-group of Naelle gen. nov., and this clade is the sister of a group composed of Egerocoris , Laterocavocoris gen. nov., Lelena gen. nov., Neella , Neoneella , and Puncticollus gen. nov. Te GC frequencies indicate a high support due to low contradictory information ( Fig. 7).

Neoneella , as Proneella , has sexual dimorphism in the length of the cuneus but in Neoneella the males have an extremely well-developed cuneus that reaches the posterior margin of the membrane, contacting each other at rest, the membrane is reduced, and the vein of the membrane is straight ataining posterior margin of cuneus.