Monte Desert (Argentina): Insect Biodiversity and Natural Areas

ROIG JUNENT, SERGIO ALBERTO; FLORES, GUSTAVO ERNESTO; CLAVER, SILVIA; DEBANDI, GUILLERMO; MARVALDI, ADRIANA

Journal of Arid Environments

Academic Press

Lugar: London; Año: 2001 vol. 47 p. 77 - 94

Monte is a warm shrub desert of Argentina, having particular biogeographicalinterest because it lies between the Neotropical and Antarctic regions. A preliminarylist of some insect families shows a high proportion of endemic generaand species, supporting the hypothesis that it constitutes a natural area with itsown biodiversity. The distribution of some insect species shows great concordancewith the area occupied by the Monte Desert, indicating its limits. Howeverthe complete series of records are not enough to define the boundaries exactly.The distributional patterns of several endemic species suggest that withinMonte there are five natural areas: Northern, Central, Uspallata-Calingasta,Southern, and Peninsula de Valdes. The limits of the Northern and Uspallata-Calingasta areas are due to physiographical features (mountains) whereas theremaining areas are delimited by climatic barriers. An analysis based onphylogenetic information shows that these areas of endemism reflect differentvalues with respect to their biodiversity. The Northern area has thehighest values of importance and has no protected areas.