Thomas Van Devender

Greater Good Charities

The Madrean Archipelago in southeastern Arizona, USA, and northeastern Sonora, Mexico, is known for its diverse fauna and flora. The amphibians and reptiles of southeastern Arizona have been extensively studied (Bezy and Cole 2014; Holycross and Mitchell 2020), but documenting their richness in the Sonoran Sky Islands and the northern Sierra Madre...

Jaguars (Panthera onca) have been recorded from 97 localities in 24 municipalities in the Madrean Archipelago in northeastern Sonora, Mexico, in the transition from the New World tropics to the northern temperate zone. Most jaguar localities (73%) were in foothills thornscrub, a northern tropical vegetation type. The jaguar is a tropical species th...

We report the first field data on the seasonality of natural history events in the viviparous horned lizard species Phrynosoma ditmarsi. Our radiotelemetry tracking of 7 adults (6 females, 1 male) and other encounters allowed us to identify seasonal changes in movement patterns, brumation inactivity, some growth patterns of adults and juveniles, se...

A total of 404 species in 312 genera, 69 families, and 11 orders of insects is documented from Rancho Las Playitas, Municipalities of Arizpe and Bacoachi, Sonora, Mexico. Distributions and locality records of noteworthy species are presented.

Documents amphibians and reptiles captured by trail cameras in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico.

Discusses distribution, habitat use, and color patterns of Heloderma suspectum in extreme southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and northeastern Sonora, Mexico.

Inventory of the herpetofauna of the Northern Jaguar Reserve, Sonora, Mexico

Describes the herpetofauna of the Mesa Tres Rios region of the Sierra Madre Occidental in northeastern Sonora, Mexico, including several range extensions and natural history notes.

Details the distribution and habitats of the northernmost known Ctenosaura populations, with emphasis on C. macrolopha in Sonora, Mexico.

Distribution and ecology of Incilius mccoyi in Sonora, Mexico.

Southernmost locality in Sonora, new municipio, and 2nd record for Sonora, Mexico.

The ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) ranges from northeastern Argentina to southern Texas and southeastern Arizona. It is listed as Endangered in Mexico and the United States. Previous works on ocelots in Sonora, found them occupying different habitats, including tropical deciduous forest, thornscrub, desert grassland, oak woodland, and pine-oak forest,...

The ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) ranges from northeastern Argentina to southern Texas and southeastern Arizona. It is listed as Endangered in Mexico and the United States. Previous works on ocelots in Sonora, found them occupying different habitats, including tropical deciduous forest, thornscrub, desert grassland, oak woodland, and pine-oak forest,...

Se describe una nueva especie de alacrán, Diplocentrus leptomanus sp. nov., proveniente de la región noreste del estado de Sonora, México. Con este aporte, se eleva a cinco el número de especies del género Diplocentrus presentes en el estado y a dos el número de especies endémicas en el área. Se provee una diagnosis comparativa con Diplocentrus wil...

PHRYNOSOMA CORNUTUM (Texas Horned Lizard). ABERRANT PARIETAL HORNS. During reptile survey in the northeastern edge of the state of Sonora, Mexico, on 5 August 2022 we encountered an adult female Phrynosoma cornutum (estimated SVL = 103 mm), Municipio de Agua Prieta, ca. 11.6 km WSW of the edge of Agua Prieta (31.285°N, 109.6795°W; WGS 84; 1279 m el...

We present the Late Pleistocene extinct shrub-ox, Euceratherium collinum (Bovidae), dung pellets recovered from Pontatoc Ridge Shelter, a dry alcove in the Santa Catalina Mountains of southern Arizona. The shelter is at the current upper edge of the Arizona Upland subdivision (the highest and coldest part) of the Sonoran Desert. Packrat (Neotoma) m...

Our study adds an additional species of horned lizard, Phrynosoma ditmarsi, to seven other species (in three clades) found to have horns-raised and back-arched responses to cranial tactile pressures exerted by human fingers simulating a snake ingestion grasp. In contrast to these members of the subfamily Phrynosomatiae, we also tested a species in...

Since 1979, observations of monarch butterfly (𝐷𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑢𝑠 𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑝𝑝𝑢𝑠 L.) in Sonora, Mexico have been low. There are 10 records of monarchs breeding in Sonora on 𝐴. 𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑖, 𝐴. 𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎 y 𝐴. 𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑎 (Apocynaceae).In July-August, monarchs from the Canelo-Hereford area in Arizona fly to the Río San Pedro, Sonora, south to the Cananea area, and then in the...

We conducted an inventory of amphibians and reptiles within Rancho Las Playitas in northern Sonora, Mexico. The herpetofaunal diversity documented so far includes 5 amphibian species, all anurans, and 33 reptile species with 1 turtle, 13 lizards, and 19 snakes. We compare that with the known herpetofauna of several areas in the vicinity.

An annotated checklist of ground beetles in the family Carabidae from the state of Sonora in Mexico is presented with notes including number of specimens examined, municipios, habitat, vegetation, elevation, and collection dates. The checklist includes 388 taxa, of which 270 are described taxa (included are 19 subspecies and 1 hybrid) and 118 are u...

According to several authors, Abert’s squirrel (Sciurus aberti) is typically found in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forest, which provides both shelter and food. Pinus ponderosa generally occurs between 1,800 and 3,000 m elevation in Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah in the United States. In México, Pinus arizonica was formerly co...

Esta flora local es una contribución al conocimiento de la diversidad biológica del Desierto Sonorense y el estado de Sonora. El documento contabiliza y muestra la diversidad de plantas del Parque Central de Hermosillo (PCH), una área natural protegida municipal de casi 30 hectáreas en el Cerro Johnson de la Sierra Espinazo Prieto. Se intersectan d...

Distribution, ecology, and habitat use of the northernmost Boa sigma records (all from northeastern Sonora, Mexico).

This paper updates our knowledge of the non-native plants of Sonora, and discussions of some recent movements of Sonoran non-native plants. Improved coverage in the SEINet network, especially the Madrean Discovery Expeditions database (madreandiscovery.org), has greatly increased our knowledge of the distributions of plants in Sonora.

A preliminary vascular flora is presented for the Sierra la Buenos Aires west of Fronteras, Sonora, based on historical collections and collections and observations made during two Madrean Discovery Expedition trips in 2016. The known flora contains 408 taxa in 82 families and 257 genera, with Asteraceae (52 taxa), Fabaceae (47 taxa), and Poaceae (...

We present a preliminary vascular flora for the Sierra la Elenita-la Mariquita Sky Island complex near Cananea, Sonora, Mexico. Expeditions and collecting trips between 2009 and 2018, along with historical collections, recorded 320 taxa in 65 families, with Asteraceae (55 taxa), Poaceae (41 taxa), and Fabaceae (36 taxa) as the most diverse families...

We summarize the preliminary floras of the Sierras La Púrica (2013), la Elenita–la Mariquita (2010, 2013, 2015–2016), la Buenos Aires (2016), and Juriquipa (2017), and the Lower Río Bavispe Valley (1995, 2005, 2010, 2012, 2016). Each of these represents the results of brief, intense floristic surveys during MABA-MDE biotic inventories or as part of...

The Sierra La Púrica is a Sky Island mountain range northnorthwest of Nacozari de García (municipality of the same name), Sonora, Mexico, in the Área de Protección de Flora y Fauna Bavispe in the Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas. The Madrean Archipelago Biodiversity Assessment Expedition Sierra La Púrica took place in July and Septem...

The flora of the lower Río Bavispe Valley from the Huásabas area south to the Río Áros at 430 to 1,510 m. elevations (1,410 to 4,954 ft.) was studied from 1995 to 2016. A total of 401 plant taxa in 74 families and 274 genera were recorded in the lower Río Bavispe Valley study area, including 24 non-native species (6.0%). The families with the most...

p class="Pa1"> Background : Floristic knowledge of Northwestern (NW) Mexico was mainly carried out by American botanists until the first half of XX century. Question : Do the ancient and recent botanical explorations carried out in the study area, are already enough to document in a conclusive way both the floristic and structural composition? Meth...

The new species Chiococcagrandiflora Lorence & T.Van Devender from Sinaloa and Sonora, Mexico differs from its congeners by its larger, showy white flowers in compact cymes of 3–9, and infundibuliform corollas 16–20 mm long with tubes 13–17 mm long and lobes 3–3.5 mm long. Its distribution, habitat, and relationships are outlined. The conservation...

We obtained 23 new records of nine-banded armadillos (Dasypus novemcinctus) in the state of Sonora, Mexico, that extend their known distribution range. Nine-banded armadillos are not well known in Sonora, where their habitat encompasses vegetation types that include tropical thornscrub, a transitional biome between Sonoran desertscrub and tropical...

The Rock Horned Lizard (Camaleón de Piedra, in Spanish), Phrynosoma ditmarsi, is a poorly known Mexican endemic species with a distribution restricted to the state of Sonora. Here we clarify two reported localities and summarize 11 new observations from the last 15 years, along with current knowledge about the habitat of this species and suggestion...

Durante doce años, entre el verano de 2003 y la primavera de 2015, se llevó a cabo la recolecta de ejemplares de herbario y el registro de observaciones de campo en una región entre Pueblo de Álamos y Rancho Viejo, municipio de Ures, Mazatán, municipio de Mazatán, y el poblado de Nácori Grande, municipio de Villa Pesqueira, Sonora, México. Esta reg...

The Sonoran Desert is a well-recognized and widely studied zone of endemism with high landscape and herpetofaunal diversities, but its transitions with the core Neotropics remain understudied. Based on museum and literature records and our field experience, we identify and discuss the currently known southern distributional limits of species of amp...

A preliminary checklist is provided for the vascular plant flora of the communal area La Guásima located in the western foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental in southern Sinaloa, northwestern Mexico. Vegetation in the area includes tropical deciduous forest, tropical subdeciduous forest, oak woodland, edaphic grassland, and riparian vegetation....

A high proportion of plant species is predicted to be threatened with extinction in the near future. However, the threat status of only a small number has been evaluated compared with key animal groups, rendering the magnitude and nature of the risks plants face unclear. Here we report the results of a global species assessment for the largest plan...

Twenty-three plant taxa are reported for Sonora, and four for Mexico, for the first time. Specimens, observations, and images are deposited in herbaria and are available in the SEINet and MABA online databases.

Ironwood Forest National Monument, created in 2000, is located west of Tucson and south of Casa Grande, in Pima and Pinal Counties, south-central Arizona. The boundaries encompass parts or all of eight desert hill and mountain ranges and two valleys. In the flora of 593 taxa, one federally listed endangered plant species, Echinocactus horizonthalon...

The Municipio de Yécora is located in the Madrean Tropical Zone of the Sierra Madre Occidental in eastern Sonora, Mexico. The herpetofauna of the region is very diverse with 93 species in 59 genera and 27 families known from the Río Yaqui to the Chihuahua border. This includes 20 species of amphibians and 73 species of reptiles. Thirty-six species...

Thirty-eight plant taxa are reported for Sonora, Mexico, for the first time. Specimens, observations, and images are deposited in herbaria and are available in the SEINet and MABA online databases.

Observations of the Sierra Madrean oak Quercus viminea in ten Sky Island mountain ranges 15 to 85 km south of the Arizona and New Mexico border in Sonora and Chihuahua help define the northern and western limits of its distribution. We also discovered it in the Patagonia Mountains of southern Arizona as far north as 15.3 km from Sonora. It is sympa...

Pines are important dominants in pine-oak, pine and mixed-conifer forests across the Colorado Plateau, southern Rocky Mountains, Sierra Madre Occidental, and in the intervening Sky Islands of the U.S -Mexico borderlands. All 17 native species of pines in the Sky Islands region or their adjacent mountain mainlands reach the northern or southern marg...

A floristic account is provided for the Aristolochiaceae and Saururaceae (Magnoliids) as part of the vascular plant flora of the contiguous protected areas of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, and the Tinajas Altas Region in southwestern Arizona—the heart of the Sonoran Desert. This floristic treatment inc...

The Sierra Bacadéhuachi in east-central Sonora is the westernmost mountain range in the Sierra Madre Occidental (SMO), located east of Bacadéhuachi, Municipio de Bacadéhuachi, 34 km east of the Chihuahua border, and 165 km south of the Arizona border. The vegetation ranges from lowland foothills thornscrub up through desert grassland to oak woodlan...

Amphibians and reptiles were observed in the Sierra La Madera (59 species), an isolated Sky Island mountain range, and the Sierra Bacadéhuachi (30 species), the westernmost mountain range in the Sierra Madre Occidental (SMO) range in east-central Sonora. These preliminary herpetofaunas were compared with the herpetofauna of the Yécora area in easte...

Based on decades of field work and herbarium research we document 84 species of Convolvulaceae (convolvs) in nine genera for the state of Sonora, Mexico: Ipomoea (41 species), Cuscuta (21), Evolvulus (6), Jacquemontia (4), Merremia (4), Dichondra (3), Convolvulus (2), Operculina (2), Cressa (1). This species richness compares with the more tropical...