Diversity of Symbiosis Between Species of Macrofungi and Insects in the Temperate Forest of Iturbide, Nuevo León

Mexico has a high biodiversity that is attributed to its varied geography (Challenger, Utilización y conservación de los ecosistemas terrestres de México. Pasado, Presente y Futuro, 1998). CONABIO and CONANP are making great efforts to publicize the species of organisms that inhabit Mexico. The state of Nuevo León is located in the Northeast of Mexico, occupies 3.3% of the country’s surface with a total of 64,082 km2 and in it adjoin the physiographic regions of the Great North American Plain, Sierra Madre Oriental and Coastal Plain of the Gulf. There is a great diversity of plants in the types of vegetation that grow in these regions and the temperate forests stand out where there is a great diversity of species of macromycetes. The latter play an important role in the flow of nutrients in forests and produce sporocarps that release volatile compounds that attract insects (Amaringo-Cortegano et al., Biota Amazon 3(3):54–63, 2013; Amat-García et al., Rev. Acad. Colomb. Cienc. 28(107):223–232, 2004). Mycotropphy by insects contribute to the process of spore dispersal and germination in the forest ecosystem (Lawrence, Insects-fungus interactions. Academy Press, New York, 1989). In the present research we studied the diversity of associations of mycotropphy by insects associated to sporocarps of species of macrofungi in the temperate forest in the municipality of Iturbide, Nuevo León. The results show that 3680 specimens of 123 species of macrofungi belonging to the phylum Ascomycota and Basidiomycota were collected. The species identified correspond to 6 orders, 19 families and 38 genera. The phylum Basidiomycota has greater presence in the sites with 68 of the 73 species identified belonging to 5 orders, 18 families and 34 genera; and the phylum Ascomycota with only 5 species recorded so far, belonging to 1 order, 1 family and 4 genera. From the collected sporocarps were obtained 947 individuals of insects, most of them I.e., 847 individuals belong to the order Coleoptera, and were followed by Hymenoptera with 12, Hemiptera and Lepidoptera with 3 individuals and finally Thysanoptera with 1. The results highlight that the order Coleoptera is strongly associated with sporocarps of Basidiomycota and Ascomycota both saprotrophic, parasites, pathogens and mycorrhizal.