New taxa, natural history and morphology of Paragara Goding and comparisons with Eunusa Fonseca (Hemiptera: Membracidae: Membracini)

We describe a new species of the Neotropical treehopper genus Paragara Goding based on recently collected material and field observations from the Colombian Amazon. In addition to the new species, we present biological observations for both Paragara chagrana Flórez-V sp. nov. and Paragara nigra Funkhouser, including their mutualistic associations with ants and aspects of maternal behavior. We also provide the first description of a nymph for the genus and discuss several diagnostic morphological characters of its constituent species.

Due to the external similarity between Paragara and Eunusa Fonseca, we include a comparative analysis that highlights key morphological and ecological differences between the two genera.