Beta diversity of Curculionoidea (Insecta: Coleoptera) along an altitudinal transect in Huasalingo, Hidalgo, Mexico

Altitudinal transect were established covering three vegetation types (deciduous Forest, Forest semideciduous and mountain cloud forest in the range of 300 to 1400 m. A total of 1440 samples were collected (20 sweeps / sample). For changes in species composition the partition beta diversity was used in the altitudinal transect through the program Partition 3.0, beta diversity was also measured as differences in species composition between sites, using a cluster analysis enhanced with coefficient of Bray-Curtis similarity in 2.13 Past program. A total of 144.22 beta were recorded, which corresponds to 95.5% of gamma diversity. sites had a higher beta diversity associated with 79.4 species, meaning that the 52.59 % of species are not present in the average collection sites, the beta between samples showed a value of 47.17 (31.22%), while vegetation types had the lowest beta value: 11.67 (11.70%). The beta diversity shows that for the family Curculionidae, collection sites formed the most important spatial scale for the exchange of species altitudinal transect. This exchange suggests a heterogeneity between each collection site, which may be related to changes in the variables environment as one moves in the transect, another important situation is the use of land and in lower elevation sites are livestock, which can have a direct involvement with the exchange of species.