Insect Visitors to the Annual Plant Community in a Xeric Environment in Central Mexico

Abstract

The interactions between the plant community and their floral visitors might vary through space, causing changes in the structure and composition of the communities of floral visitors. Although numerous studies have addressed the variation in the communities of floral visitors through space, none of them have analyzed how the structure of the community of floral visitors for all the co-flowering annual plant species changes between sites. We describe how the community of floral visitors to annual plants varies through space in a xeric community in central Mexico. We collected all the insects visiting the flowers of the annual plants growing in 2 sites with contrasting plant density (low vs. high). We determined species richness, abundance, and diversity for the insect communities in each site. We established the similarity in the composition of the insect communities and the importance of environmental variables on the dynamics of the communities of floral visitors. Abundance and diversity of floral visitors were significantly higher in the low plant density site. The composition of the insect communities differed between sites (similarity = 32%). Changes in abundance of a few groups of insects seem to be related to environmental factors such as disturbance (Myrmecocystus mexicanus Wesmael [Hymenoptera: Formicidae] and Tiphiidae sp. 1 [Hymenoptera]), humidity (Curculionidae sp. 1 [Coleoptera]), and temperature (Dorymyrmex grandulus (Forel) [Hymenoptera: Formicidae]). Our results indicate that vegetation density has a strong effect on the community of floral visitors of annual plants, which in turn, might affect their reproduction and their interactions with other organisms within the ecosystem.