Miguel Vásquez-Bolaños

Archaeoentomological study of a pre-Columbian funerary bundle (mortuary cave of Candelaria, Coahuila, Mexico)

Summary The archaeoentomological study of insect remains recovered from a pre-Columbian funerary bundle (10th–11th centuries ad) is presented and illustrated. Among this material, 12 species belonging to 10 families and four distinct orders have been identified. From the biological data of the different taxa, some hypotheses about the funerary practices of the hunter–gatherer semi nomads of Northern Mexico are proposed.

Ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Diversity in the Canopy of a Tropical Dry Forest in Tepoztlán, Central Mexico

Abstract The canopy of the Neotropical forest hosts a wide diversity of arthropods, where ants represent one of the most abundant and diverse groups. This diversity may be due to the preference of some insect species for certain species of trees. In order to determine the diversity of ants and their patterns of association with trees, nine tree species of two zones (soils based on limestone or volcanic rock) of the tropical dry forest were chosen in San Andrés de la Cal, Tepoztlán, in Morelos state, Mexico. Ants were collected directly from the branches of 5–10 individuals per tree species or by using pitfall traps. Estimated sampling efficiency was 96%, and a total of 27 species of ants belonging to 13 genera and 6 subfamilies were found. Of these species, 56% are tree-dwelling while the rest are generalist species that climb the trees to forage in the canopy. Ant species richness differed among tree species, with a gradient from Ipomoea murucoides with the highest richness, to Bursera fagaroides with the lowest. No differences were found among the tree species in terms of the composition of ant species, but 44% of the species were found in one forest zone only and one species was found more frequently in one zone than in the other. With the information generated in this study, eight species and one genus (Tapinoma) have been added to the 89 species and 29 genera recorded in the state of Morelos. While ant species composition did not differ among tree species, the difference in richness suggests that three of the studied tree species offer a greater provision of resources to the ants and that the floristic differences between forest zones generate different ant assemblages.

Species Richness of Ants1 of the Pedregal de San Ángel, an Ecological Reserve in Mexico City

Ants, with their great taxonomic and functional diversity, can provide important information about the status and health of the ecosystems they inhabit. Currently, 927 ant species have been registered in Mexico (Vásquez-Bolaños 2015), of which 18 have been reported in Mexico City (Ríos-Casanova 2014). Even so, ants in reserves inside the city have been little explored. Within Mexico City, the Reserva Ecológica El Pedregal de San Ángel (Pedregal de San Ángel Ecological Reserve) is important as a natural system immersed in the largest metropolitan zone of Mexico and one of the largest cities in the world. Despite the proximity to the urbanized area, the enormous plant and animal diversity of the reserve has been widely recognized (Lot and Cano-Santana 2009). A recent study on the family Formicidae in the Reserva Ecológica El Pedregal de San Ángel reported the presence of 21 ant species (Hernández 2010). However, little is known about the species inhabiting other zones of the reserve or the ants that can be captured by different sampling methods in the ecosystem. The Reserva Ecológica El Pedregal de San Ángel is in the southwestern portion of Mexico City, in Ciudad Universitaria that forms part of the area belonging to the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The vegetation type is highelevation xerophytic scrub, and annual average rainfall and temperature are 833 mm and 15.6°C, respectively (Castillo-Argüero et al. 2004). The reserve has 237.3 ha, currently divided into Nucleus Zones and Buffer Zones; these last include the Cantera Oriente site that does not form part of the reserve belonging to the university campus but is considered a buffer zone of the reserve (Lot 2007, REPSA 2016). In this note, we present ants collected during several studies as well as information previously reported. During our studies, the ant species were recorded at three sites in the western Nucleus Zone and at three nearby Buffer Zone sites. In addition, ants were collected in the Cantera Oriente. The environmental characteristics of the zones have been previously described in detail (Lot 2007, Lot and Cano-Santana 2009).