Abstract
Problem statement: The arthropods have a very important role in the a rid zones due to their interactions with many organism and because t hey constituted an important element in the structure of the plant community. Nevertheless thei r importance there are few knowledge about the community of arthropods associated to vegetation in arid zones in the North of Mexico. The present study had the objective of determining the abundanc e, richness and diversity of arthropods in three localities where there are natural populations of m escal agave in the State of Durango, Mexico. Approach: In order to know the structure community of the a rthropods associated to the mescal agave, we perform a sampling schedule during March 2008 to November 2010 by direct collection, using transects in three different localities with the presence of mescal agave. The relative abundan ce, species richness, Shannon's diversity index, Pielou 's Index of evenness, Jaccard's similitude and Simpson's dominance indexes were determined. Results: A total of 4665 individual arthropods associated to mescal agave corresponding to 39 spec ies were found. El Mezquital had the highest abundance and relative abundance (44.1%) with 29 species. The mean species abundance was not significantly different between localities using Tu rkey's test. The highest density per unit of area w as found in El Mezquital (La Brena had the highest spe cies diversity (1.89), evenness (0.61) and dominance (0.78). At the taxon level, Hymenoptera had the highest number of species represented (14), followed by Coleoptera (9) and hemiptera (5), with the remaining taxons with four, two and one species each. Conclusion: The greatest similitude was observed between La Br ena and El Mezquital (46%) which shared seven taxons, while the least si militude was observed between El Venado and La Brena (29%). Dominance/diversity curves are presented for each locality. The species Caulotops sp., Acutaspis agavis , Chilorus sp., Scyphophorus acupunctatus and Peltophorus polymitus were the ones with highest relative abundance. Although the diver sity values are above the minimum, previously unreported arthropod species associated to mescal a gave were recorded. The results can be useful to know the dynamic in the community associated to agave, in order to development best conservation and exploit management of that important plant.
Highlights
The Agavaceae family, with nine genera and approximately 310 species, is distributed in the arid and semiarid regions of America
Species richness and composition was different among localities lending support to the argument that environmental conditions and human activities can determine the habitat preferences of arthropods among communities, even though abiotic factors such as temperature and humidity seem to have greater relevance in species richness and abundance since they are related with life cycles and could be the key to their success in extreme environments such as those in Durango
Wilson (1990) stated that ants are the most abundant insects and that they play an important role in the ecosystem
Summary
The Agavaceae family, with nine genera and approximately 310 species, is distributed in the arid and semiarid regions of America. In general it forms dispersed groups or conglomerates within the xerophyte vegetation, in grasslands and in combination with nopal in the South of Durango (Elizondo, 2009; Gallegos et al, 2007). These species have mentioned that entomological studies can be adapted to the dryness of the most expansive ecological processed, analyzed and applied in systematics, zone in the country, arid and semiarid environments, ecology and biogeography, as well as provide which encompass 84 million hectares representing information on the health status of ecosystems, allow
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