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Introduction
Ecology, evolution and diversity of ants.
Phylogenetics, phylogeography, population genetics.
Biogeography of South Pacific and Melanesia.
Tropical ecology and diversity.
Ecology and evolution of Mexican insects.
Current institution
Current position
- Head, Laboratory of Molecular Ecology and Biodiversity, at National Laboratory for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis,
Additional affiliations
January 2005 - present
September 2009 - September 2013
January 2005 - December 2012
Publications
Publications (66)
Non‐equilibrium dynamics and non‐neutral processes, such as trait‐dependent dispersal, are often missing from quantitative island biogeography models despite their potential explanatory value. One of the most influential non‐equilibrium models is the taxon cycle, but it has been difficult to test its validity as a general biogeographical framework....
The synthesis of comprehensive databases on the identity and distributions of alien organisms is a critical step to developing informed invasion management plans and identifying areas that are data-deficient. Here, we assembled all available records of alien ant distributions for Mexico, based on the literature, databases and unpublished data for a...
Ants (Formicidae) in Mexico have usually been undersampled despite their ecological significance and their utility as environmental service providers and bioindicators. This study estimates the species richness and the narrow endemic species number of ants across Mexico. It also documents the presence of one species newly recorded in Mexico and 19...
We use community phylogenetics to elucidate the community assembly mechanisms for Geometridae moths (Lepidoptera) collected along a complete rainforest elevational gradient (200–3700 m a.s.l) on Mount Wilhelm in Papua New Guinea. A constrained phylogeny based on COI barcodes for 604 species was used to analyse 1390 species x elevation occurrences a...
We studied communities of leaf litter weevils along a 2000 m elevation gradient in El Cielo Biosphere Reserve, northeastern Mexico, an area where Nearctic and Neotropical biotas overlap. After achieving high inventory completeness (0.922 site sample coverage), we encountered 81 weevil morphospecies, of which 55 were known to be leaf litter speciali...
Arboreal ants are ecologically important in tropical forests, but there are few studies using DNA markers to examine their population and colony structure. Colonies of the arboreal turtle ant Cephalotes goniodontus create trail networks through the canopy of the tropical forest, in dense vegetation where it is difficult to determine how long a nest...
Cities and urban environments can do peculiar things to biodiversity that shares them with us. How cities affect their invited and uninvited inhabitants has become an increasingly important question. More than half of the world's population dwells in urban areas, and these environments will keep expanding considerably. Understanding how this relati...
La Reserva de la Biósfera El Cielo (RBC) representa una de las principales áreas de interés para la
conservación biológica. Las condiciones biótico-abióticas que se encuentran en dicho sitio confieren características
regionales únicas las cuales pueden evaluarse a través de distintos gradientes ambientales, como lo es la elevación. La
elevación...
Los gradientes de elevación representan laboratorios in situ ya que modulan diversas
variables tanto bióticas como abióticas, tales como son la temperatura e interacciones. Por lo tanto, la diversidad de especies en los gradientes de elevación está directamente
relacionada a estos factores, siendo las hormigas un grupo idóneo para analizar estos
pa...
Evolutionary innovations underlie the rise of diversity and complexity—the 2 long-term trends in the history of life. How does natural selection redesign multiple interacting parts to achieve a new emergent function? We investigated the evolution of a biomechanical innovation, the latch-spring mechanism of trap-jaw ants, to address 2 outstanding ev...
Vol. 19(3) April 2021. PLoS Biol 19(3): ev19.i03. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pbio.v19.i03
• Tropical trees accommodate a high co‐occurrence of ant species, mainly due to the high diversity of microhabitats available. However, a few ant species are highly abundant, dominating resources and defending territories in tree canopies. Although arboreal ants have been studied extensively, little is known about the structural drivers of ant spat...
A team of 79 scientists from more than 50 institutions partnered to gather all available information regarding Mexican ants since 1894, the year in which the first geographical record of an ant is known for the country. In this new study, including more than 21,000 records, we showed that there are ~900 species of ants in Mexico, which are distribu...
A team of 79 scientists from more than 50 institutions partnered to gather all available information regarding Mexican ants since 1894, the year in which the first geographical record of an ant is known for the country. In this new study, including more than 21,000 records, we showed that there are ~900 species of ants in Mexico, which are distribu...
A team of 79 scientists from more than 50 institutions partnered to gather all available information regarding Mexican ants since 1894, the year in which the first geographical record of an ant is known for the country. In this new study, including more than 21,000 records, we showed that there are ~900 species of ants in Mexico, which are distribu...
Discussion of the vertical stratification of organisms in tropical forests has traditionally focused on species distribution. Most studies have shown that, due to differences in abiotic conditions and resource distribution, species can be distributed along the vertical gradient according to their ecophysiological needs. However, the network structu...
Mexico is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, with an important proportion of endemism mainly because of the convergence of the Nearctic and Neotropical biogeographic regions, which generate great diversity and species turnover at different spatial scales. However, most of our knowledge of the Mexican ant biota is limited to a few we...
Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) are one of the most conspicuous invertebrates in the arid and semiarid ecosystems. Thanks to their diverse life strategies and high abundance, they take part in many interactions with other plants and animals and can considerably alter the local ecosystem. Here, we surveyed the ant assemblage of Churince in the Cuatro...
Aim
The latitudinal diversity gradient is the dominant geographic pattern of life on Earth, but a consensus understanding of its origins has remained elusive. The analysis of recently diverged, hyper‐rich invertebrate groups provides an opportunity to investigate latitudinal patterns with the statistical power of large trees while minimizing potent...
Highly seasonal conditions of tropical dry forests determine the temporal patterns of insect abundance.
However, density-independent factors such as natural disturbances can abruptly change environmental
conditions, affecting insect populations. We address the effects of the Hurricane Patricia (category 5) on
species density and abundance of three...
The relationship between levels of dominance and species richness is highly contentious, especially in ant communities. The dominance‐impoverishment rule states that high levels of dominance only occur in species‐poor communities, but there appear to be many cases of high levels of dominance in highly diverse communities. The extent to which domina...
Aim
The latitudinal diversity gradient is the dominant pattern of life on Earth, but a consensus understanding of its origins has remained elusive. The analysis of recently diverged, hyper-rich invertebrate groups provides an opportunity to investigate latitudinal patterns with the statistical power of large trees while minimizing potentially confo...
Cycad Aulacaspis Scale (Hemiptera: Diaspididae: Aulacaspis yasumatsui Takagi, 1977), which is native to Southeast Asia, is a devastating pest of some species of cycads in areas where it is invasive. In September 2016, it was reported to be present in Chiapas in southern Mexico, a country with 60 native cycad species, most of which are endemic and e...
El presente reporte tiene como principal objetivo proporcionar información veraz y actualizada sobre 4 especies de hormigas con potencial invasor en México con la finalidad de prevenir, detectar y reducir el riesgo de introducción, establecimiento y dispersión de dichas especies. Se incluye información detallada que permitirá a las autoridades corr...
In our recent publication (Sharma et al., 2017), we tested the hypothesis that eggs attached to the legs of male Podoctidae (Opiliones, Laniatores) constituted a case of paternal care, using molecular sequence data in tandem with multiple sequence alignments to test the prediction that sequences of the eggs and the adults that carried them would in...
Ant-gardens (AGs) are ant/plant mutualisms in which ants farm epiphytes in return for nest space and food rewards. They occur in the Neotropics and Australasia, but not in Africa, and their evolutionary assembly remains
unclear. We here use phylogenetic frameworks for important AG lineages in Australasia, namely the ant genus Philidris and domatium...
What forces structure ecological assemblages? A key limitation to general insights about assemblage structure is the availability of data that are collected at a small spatial grain (local assemblages) and a large spatial extent (global coverage). Here, we present published and unpublished data from 51,388 ant abundance and occurrence records of mo...
Aim
The fundamental biogeographical processes of colonization, speciation and extinction shape island biotas in space–time. On oceanic islands, area and isolation affect these processes and resulting biodiversity patterns. In the Anthropocene, a new human‐mediated colonization dynamic is altering insular ecosystems world‐wide. Here, we test predict...
Indo-Pacific members of the speciose and morphologically confusing group of Camponotus ants that resemble C. maculatus (FABRICIUS, 1782) have recently been the subject of a molecular phylogeny, and that analysis is used here as guidance to update the taxonomy of the Micronesian species. It is now known that Micronesian and some Melanesian specimens...
Ants in the genera Anochetus and Odontomachus belong to one of the largest clades in the subfamily Ponerinae, and are one of four lineages of ants possessing spring-loaded “trap-jaws.” Here we present results from the first global species-level molecular phylogenetic analysis of these trap-jaw ants, reconstructed from one mitochondrial, one ribosom...
Tapinoma melanocephalum is a worldwide distributed, highly invasive ant species. It lives in close association with human societies and its distribution is human-mediated in large measure. The geographical origin of this ant species is unknown, but its introduction in areas previously devoided of its presence can represent a threat to the native bi...
Spatial isolation and geological history are important factors in the diversification and population differentiation of species. Here we describe distributional patterns of ants in the genus Acropyga across Papua New Guinea (PNG), a highly biodiverse but little-studied region. We estimate phylogenetic relationships among currently recognised specie...
Aim:
We sought to reconstruct the biogeographical structure and dynamics of a hyperdiverse ant genus, Pheidole, and to test several predictions of the taxon cycle hypothesis. Using large datasets on Pheidole geographical distributions and phylogeny, we (1) inferred patterns of biogeographical modularity (clusters of areas with similar faunal compo...
The present checklist of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Ambon is the first comprehensive overview
of ant species recorded on the island during the last 150 years. The species list is based on literature and
museum collections’ records combined with data from our field survey in 2010. In total, there are 74 ant
species and subspecies representing...
Ants that resemble Camponotus maculatus (Fabricius, 1782) present an opportunity to test the hypothesis that the origin of the Pacific island fauna was primarily New Guinea, the Philippines, and the Indo-Malay archipelago (collectively known as Ma-lesia). We sequenced two mitochondrial and four nuclear markers from 146 specimens from Pacific island...
1. Species diversity of arboreal arthropods tends to increase during rainforest succession so that primary forest communities comprise more species than those from secondary vegetation, but it is not well understood why. Primary forests differ from secondary forests in a wide array of factors whose relative impacts on arthropod diversity have not y...
Collection details, accessions (BOLD and GenBank) and all host information associated with
Wolbachia
DNA sequences used here.
(XLS)
Wolbachia is a genus of bacterial endosymbionts that impacts the breeding systems of their hosts. Wolbachia can confuse the patterns of mitochondrial variation, including DNA barcodes, because it influences the pathways through which mitochondria are inherited. We examined the extent to which these endosymbionts are detected in routine DNA barcodin...
1. Species diversity of arboreal arthropods tends to increase during rainforest succession so that primary forest communities comprise more species than those from secondary vegetation, but it is not well understood why. Primary forests differ from secondary forests in a wide array of factors whose relative impacts on arthropod diversity have not y...
A central focus of ecology and biogeography is to determine the factors that govern spatial variation in biodiversity. Here, we examined patterns of ant diversity along climatic gradients in three temperate montane systems: Great Smoky Mountains National Park (USA), Chiricahua Mountains (USA), and Vorarlberg (Austria). To identify the factors which...
1. Ants are extremely abundant in lowland tropical forests where they are important predators, plant mutualists, and herbivores. Their complex role in tropical plant–insect food webs can be best assessed by experimental manipulation of their abundance. Historically, ant exclusion experiments have had a small-scale focus, such as single trees. Here,...
The ant assemblages in two common tree species in primary lowland forest of New Guinea were explored using direct canopy access and tuna bait traps. The 19 trees investigated were occupied by 21 ant species of which 18 were canopy inhabitants. On average only 3.6 ant species per tree and 3 species per bait were found. Height of bait position was po...
Tropical forest canopies house most of the globe's diversity, yet little is known about global patterns and drivers of canopy diversity. Here, we present models of ant species density, using climate, abundance and habitat (i.e. canopy versus litter) as predictors. Ant species density is positively associated with temperature and precipitation, and...
The Camponotus aureopilus VIEHMEYER, 1914 species group contains nine known species from Papua New Guinea and Australia. Recently a tenth species, Camponotus royi sp.n., has been discovered from west-central Papua New Guinea rainforests. This new species is described and the key to this species group modified to accommodate it.
Although many taxa show a latitudinal gradient in richness, the relationship between latitude and species richness is often asymmetrical between the northern and southern hemispheres. Here we examine the latitudinal pattern of species richness across 1003 local ant assemblages. We find latitudinal asymmetry, with southern hemisphere sites being mor...
Leptogenopapus mirabilis, gen. n., sp. n. is described based on the single male collected from foraging colony of Leptogenys breviceps Viehmeyer in Papua New Guinea. The genus is a member of the tribe Lomechusini (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae, Aleocharinae) and is most closely related to Leptogenoxenus Kistner. The list of all Staphylinidae associated...
Leptogenopapus mirabilis, gen. n., sp. n. is described based on the single male collected from foraging colony of Leptogenys breviceps Viehmeyer in Papua New Guinea. The genus is a member of the tribe Lomechusini (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae, Aleocharinae) and is most closely related to Leptogenoxenus Kistner. The list of all Staphylinidae associated...
Despite several centuries of research, the global patterns of species diversity, individual abundance and community composition and their drivers and subtleties remain poorly resolved. We have developed a global database for the di-versity of ants, perhaps the best-studied of ecologically important insect taxa. We describe the database and aspects...
The ant diversity in New Guinea lowland forests is considered to be among the highest in the world (WILSON 1959, SNELLING 1998). At the same time, the local ant fauna is extremely poorly known. Over 730 ant species have been reported from the whole island, representing an interesting combination of Australian and SE Asian taxa (JANDA & ALPERT 2007)...
Recent advances in understanding insect communities in tropical forests have contributed little to our knowledge of large-scale patterns of insect diversity, because incomplete taxonomic knowledge of many tropical species hinders the mapping of their distribution records. This impedes an understanding of global biodiversity patterns and explains wh...
Despite recent progress in understanding mechanisms of tree species coexistence in tropical forests, a simple explanation
for the even more extensive diversity of insects feeding on these plants has been missing. We compared folivorous insects
from temperate and tropical trees to test the hypothesis that herbivore species coexistence in more divers...
Phylogeny of ants of the tribe Lasiini (Lasius, Acanthomyops, Prenolepis, Euprenolepis, Paratrechina, Pseudolasius, and Myrmecocystus) was analysed using 81 morphological, ecological, and behavioural characters (for 41 species) and mitochondrial DNA sequences (COI, COII, tRNA-Leu; for 19 species). The free-living subgenus Lasius s. str. is paraphyl...
We characterized a plant–caterpillar food web from secondary vegetation in a New Guinean rain forest that included 63 plant species (87.5% of the total basal area), 546 Lepidoptera species and 1679 trophic links between them. The strongest 14 associations involved 50% of all individual caterpillars while some links were extremely rare. A caterpilla...
1. Caterpillar assemblages feeding on two alien plants, Piper aduncum and P. umbellatum , were studied in lowland rainforest in Papua New Guinea and compared with assemblages from 69 species of native woody hosts, including congeneric P. macropiper .
2. Species richness of caterpillars feeding on P. aduncum (29 species per 1500 m ² of foliage) and...
