Ichneumonidae, or Chilean Darwin wasps, are an important component of South American hymenopteran diversity, but the taxonomic and distributional knowledge on this insect is still deficient. Taking advantage of recently updated taxonomic knowledge, we assessed biogeographic relationships at the genus level and biodiversity spatial patterns along the latitudinal gradient. The results show the presence of 264 species in Chile, arranged in 102 genera and 22 subfamilies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAsteraceae is the world's richest plant family and is found on all continents, in environments ranging from the coast to the highest mountains. The family shows all growth forms and, as in other angiosperm families, species richness is concentrated in tropical regions. South America has the highest diversity of Asteraceae in the world, yet taxonomic and distributional knowledge gaps remain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere is a need to make substantial advances in the taxonomic, systematic, and distribution knowledge of plants, and find better ways of transmission of this information to society to surpass the general pattern described as "plant blindness." The diversity of the plant family Solanaceae reaches its peak in South America; however, many of its species are threatened due to the expansion of the human footprint. Here, we examine the diversity patterns of the family in southern South America (Argentina and Chile) by means of species richness (SR), weighted endemism (WE), and corrected weighted endemism (CWE).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVery few Solanaceae species are able to grow in saline soils; one of them is . This species is endemic to the Altiplano-Puna region (Central Andes, South America) where there are multiple extreme environmental conditions such as hypersaline soils. Here we present an updated description and distribution of including its new record for Bolivia at the edges of "Salar de Uyuni", the largest salt flat in the world; we discuss its ecological role in saline environments by analyzing soil salinity and cover-abundance values of the studied sites.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe present a taxonomic synopsis of the South American genus Ruiz & Pav. (Solanaceae), within which we recognise seventeen taxa (14 species with three infraspecific taxa). The genus is mainly distributed in Chile between the coast of the Atacama Desert and the southern temperate forests, while two species occur in the Argentinian Provinces of Mendoza and Neuquén.
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