Riqueza y Endemismo de Papilionoidea (Lepidoptera) de la región Loxicha en el estado de Oaxaca, México

The Loxicha region in the south of Oaxaca, Mexico has great species richness and endemism of butterflies. We made a systematic faunistic study including sampling in seven years from 2005 to 2014. We describe the diversity of four families of Papilionoidea in the Loxicha Region, with respect to the species richness and endemism of the state and the south of Mexico. We also present a list of species. We recorded 310 taxa from which 28% is endemic to some degree (region, state, country). We compare the diversity of the Loxicha Region to that in Sierra de Atoyac, both regions within the Sierra Madre del Sur in the Pacific slope, both regions combined contain 335 species from which 99 are endemic. The endemism ratio of butterflies in these two localities in the Pacific Slope is higher compared to Sierra de Juarez in the Gulf Slope, which has higher species richness, showing the differences between richness and endemism spatial patterns of these insects. We discuss the importance of faunistic analyses with sufficient sampling effort on the understanding and monitoring of biodiversity. The strategy applied for the Papilionoidea in the Loxicha region can be replicated in other regions with other megadiverse groups to obtain the complete lists of species. This research is part of a wider project focused on the study of the diversity and biogeographical patterns of butterflies in Mexico.