Miguel Ángel Damián-Huato

Description of the Larvae of Three Species of Macrodactylus Dejean (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae) from Mexico, with Notes on the Reproductive Behavior of Macrodactylus ocreatus Bates

ABSTRACT Third instars of Macrodactylus mexicanus Burmeister, Macrodactylus nigripes Bates, and Macrodactylus ocreatus Bates are described from specimens collected from soil in corn fields at Chignahuapan, Puebla and La Malinche, Tlaxcala, and from soil in an amaranth grain field at Zapotitlán Salinas, Puebla. Illustrations of diagnostic structures, comparative comments with similar species, and a key to known third instars of Macrodactylus Dejean in Mexico are included. Data on the habits and reproductive behavior of M. ocreatus in nature and in captivity are also provided.

Technological Model and Sustainable Rural Development for Rainy-Spell Corn Producers in Mexico

Mexican agriculture presents problems that affect the producers, the rural society and the alimentary security. The first one has to do with the poverty of the field inhabitants. Data from the Consejo Nacional de Evaluacion de la Politica de Desarrollo Social (CONEVAL), indicate that by 2008, 44.2% of the population (47.2 million Mexicans) was poor, having at least one social lack and an insufficient income to acquire alimentary and nonalimentary goods considered basic. Out of the total of the poor population, 63.2% inhabit the rural and 36.8% the urban surrounding (CONEVAL, 2010). Poverty tends to worsen because the prices of foods have increased; at the beginning of 2008 the real prices of foods were 64% higher than those of 2002 and the index of food prices marked a maximum of 214.7 points in December of 2010 (Diouf, 2011).