Interactions Between Macrofungi and Insects via Sporocarps in Three Types of Vegetation of the Municipality of Linares, Nuevo León, Mexico

A high diversity of insect-fungus interactions was found in the three vegetation types; these interactions are first reported from northeastern Mexico. Mushroom species grew best in autumn and 102 species were recorded; The Oak Forest (OF) obtained 52 fungi/2206 insect specimens, the Oak-Pine Forest (OPF) obtained 46/1540 and the Tamaulipas Thornscrub (MT) 37/324. The results showed that 4070 insect specimens occurred in 313 individuals of fungi and 35 fungi had 11 species of associated insects. Daedalea elegans had 1111 insect specimens and Hexagonia papyracea, Pluteus cervinus and Schizophyllum comune only 1. The beetles had 3809 specimens, Hymenoptera 21, Hemiptera 4, Diptera 3 and Lepidoptera 2. The insect Colenis sp, was present in sporocarps of 22 species of fungi and Lasius niger in 5 fungi and all the others only in 1. The OF and OPF vegetation types had a similarity of 39.2% (ISS = 0.392) followed by TT with 18.9% (ISS = 0189). The affinity matrix of the Sørensen Coefficient showed that sites 2 and 3 were close with a similarity of 28%, sites 1 and 3 had 10%. The Shannon-Wiener Index showed a high diversity of fungi for all vegetation types; the (OPF) had a diversity of 3.59, the (OF) had 3.57 and the (MT) had 3.07. Regarding the growth habit of the species, 67 were Saprotrophic (66%); 25 Mycorrhizal (25%) and 10 parasitic (9%); 49 species were not edible (48%), 27 toxic (26%), 23 edible (23%) and 3 medicinal (3%).