Phylogenetic analysis of the Abana group of genera (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Cicadellinae: Proconiini)

. The Abana group sensu Mejdalani (2000) includes the genera Abana Distant, Acrobelus Stål, Acrogonia Stål, Deselvana Young, Omagua Melichar, Raphirhinus de LaPorte and Teletusa Distant. A comparative morphological study of these genera and six outgroup taxa yielded seventy‐four characters of the head, thorax, and male and female genitalia. The structures of the female genitalia, studied for the first time in a phylogenetic analysis of proconiine genera, provided informative characters for the analysis. A phylogenetic analysis conducted to estimate the relationships among these genera, using six outgroup genera, revealed eight equally most‐parsimonious trees. Goloboff's implied weights method resulted in two trees and successive weighting selected one of the original trees. The latter shows the following relationships for the genera: (Cicciana ((Acrogonia, Homalodisca) (Molomea, Tretogonia)) (Diestostemma (Desamera (Acrobelus ((Abana, Omagua) ((Raphirhinus (Deselvana sp., Deselvana ornata, Deselvana excavata)) (Deselvana dorsivitta, Teletusa))). The monophyly of the Abana group was not recovered, but a monophyletic group including Abana, Acrobelus, Deselvana, Omagua, Raphirhinus and Teletusa appeared in all eight trees. The genus Deselvana seems to be polyphyletic.