Daryl Cruz

Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Conservación, Faculty Member

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Mi formación académica comenzó en la Universidad de La Habana, Cuba, donde obtuve mi licenciatura en Biología. Durante mis años de estudiante, participé activamente en eventos académicos, logrando varios premios y distinciones. En mi tercer año, me incorporé al grupo de Entomología de la facultad, y fue allí donde desarrollé mi tesis sobre la ecología de la familia Sphingidae (Lepidópteros). También me integré al grupo de trabajo en Informática de la Biodiversidad, adquiriendo habilidades en morfometría geométrica, modelado de nicho y percepción remota. Tras graduarme, comencé a trabajar como Investigador-Docente en el Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones en Sanidad Vegetal en Cuba, donde realicé investigaciones en manejo integrado de plagas agrícolas y di clases de postgrado en reconocimiento y control de plagas de insectos. Mi trabajo resultó en publicaciones en revistas nacionales e internacionales y participaciones en eventos científicos. Posteriormente, me uní al Instituto de Ecología y Sistemática, enfocando mi investigación en insectos endémicos de Cuba y su conservación, además de desarrollar estudios sobre la cobertura vegetal del país usando percepción remota y análisis de imágenes satelitales.
Obtuve mi Maestría en Ciencias en Zoología y Ecología Animal y, motivado por expandir mi formación, ingresé al Doctorado en Ciencias Naturales en la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, México. Durante mi doctorado, publiqué en revistas de alto impacto y colaboré con varios grupos de investigación, abordando temas desde la sistemática molecular hasta la conservación de la vegetación. Actualmente, soy Profesor Investigador de Tiempo Completo en el CIByC,
A lo largo de más de diez años de experiencia en docencia e investigación, he contribuido a 21 publicaciones científicas y he coeditado un libro sobre la diversidad biológica de Cuba. He dirigido tesis de licenciatura y maestría y continúo impartiendo cursos de pregrado y postgrado. He sido reconocido con premios como el premio Academia de Ciencias de Cuba y el premio Felipe Poey de la Sociedad Cubana de Zoología, demostrando mi compromiso continuo con la ciencia y la educación. Además, soy miembro del Sistema Nacional de Investigadores de México, con la distinción SNI-I.
Supervisors: Dra. Elizabeth Arellano Arenas

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Environmental sympatry through time: spatio-temporal distribution and conservation status of two sympatric anuran species (Leptodactylidae) in South America

Revista de Biología Tropical, 2024

Introduction: Leptodactylus latinasus and Physalaemus cuqui are sympatric anuran species with sim... more Introduction: Leptodactylus latinasus and Physalaemus cuqui are sympatric anuran species with similar environmental requirements and contrasting reproductive modes. Climatic configuration determines distribution patterns and promotes sympatry of environmental niches, but specificity/selectivity determines the success of reproductive modes. Species distribution models (SDM) are a valuable tool to predict spatio-temporal distributions based on the extrapolation of environmental predictors. Objectives: To determine the spatio-temporal distribution of environmental niches and assess whether the protected areas of the World Database of Protected Areas (WDPA) allow the conservation of these species in the current scenario and future. Methods: We applied different algorithms to predict the distribution and spatio-temporal overlap of environmental niches of L. latinasus and P. cuqui within South America in the last glacial maximum (LGM), middle-Holocene, current and future scenarios. We assess the conservation status of both species with the WDPA conservation units. Results: All applied algorithms showed high performance for both species (TSS = 0.87, AUC = 0.95). The L. latinasus predictions showed wide environmental niches from LGM to the current scenario (49 % stable niches, 37 % gained niches, and 13 % lost niches), suggesting historical fidelity to stable climatic-environmental regions. In the current-future transition, L. latinasus would increase the number of stable (70 %) and lost (20 %) niches, suggesting fidelity to lowland regions and a possible trend toward microendemism. P. cuqui loses environmental niches from the LGM to the current scenario (25 %) and in the current-future transition (63 %), increasing the environmental sympathy between both species; 31 % spatial overlap in the current scenario and 70 % in the future.

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Geometric morphometrics and ecological niche modelling for delimitation of Triatoma pallidipennis (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae) haplogroups

by Daryl Cruz and Carlos-Napoleón Ibarra-Cerdeña

Current Research in Parasitology & Vector-Borne Diseases, 2023

A recent phylogenetic analysis of Triatoma pallidipennis, an important Chagas disease vector in M... more A recent phylogenetic analysis of Triatoma pallidipennis, an important Chagas disease vector in Mexico, based on molecular markers, revealed five monophyletic haplogroups with validity as cryptic species. Here, we compare T. pallidipennis haplogroups using head and pronotum features, environmental characteristics of their habitats, and ecological niche modeling. To analyze variation in shape, images of the head and pronotum of the specimens were obtained and analyzed using methods based on landmarks and semi-landmarks. Ecological niche models were obtained from occurrence data, as well as a set of bioclimatic variables that characterized the environmental niche of each analyzed haplogroup. Deformation grids for head showed a slight displacement towards posterior region of pre-ocular landmarks. Greatest change in head shape was observed with strong displacement towards anterior region of antenniferous tubercle. Procrustes ANOVA and pairwise comparisons showed differences in mean head shape in almost all haplogroups. However, pairwise comparisons of mean pronotum shape only showed differences among three haplogroups. Correct classification of all haplogroups was not possible using discriminant analysis. Important differences were found among the environmental niches of the analyzed haplogroups. Ecological niche models of each haplogroup did not predict the climatic suitability areas of the other haplogroups, revealing differences in environmental conditions. Significant differences were found between at least two haplogroups, demonstrating distinct environmental preferences among them. Our results show how the analysis of morphometric variation and the characterization of the environmental conditions that define the climatic niche can be used to improve the delimitation of T. pallidipennis haplogroups that constitute cryptic species.

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Quantitative imagery analysis of spot patterns for the three-haplogroup classification of Triatoma dimidiata (Latreille, 1811) (Hemiptera: Reduviidae), an important vector of Chagas disease

Parasites & Vectors

Background Spots and coloring patterns evaluated quantitatively can be used to discriminate and i... more Background Spots and coloring patterns evaluated quantitatively can be used to discriminate and identify possible cryptic species. Species included in the Triatoma dimidiata (Reduviidae: Triatominae) complex are major disease vectors of Chagas disease. Phylogenetic studies have defined three haplogroups for Mexico and part of Central America. We report here our evaluation of the possibility of correctly discriminating these three T. dimidiata haplogroups using the pattern of the dorsal spots. Methods Digital images of the dorsal region of individuals from the three haplogroups were used. Image processing was used to extract primary and secondary variables characterizing the dorsal spot pattern. Statistical analysis of the variables included descriptive statistics, non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis tests, discriminant function analysis (DFA) and a neural classification network. Results A distinctive spot pattern was found for each haplogroup. The most differentiated pattern was presented...

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¿Why are we ignoring the relief? On the bias of planimetric instead topographic areas in ecological and spatial modeling researches

Ecosistemas

La información espacial, los productos satelitales y sus derivados son fuentes importantes de inf... more La información espacial, los productos satelitales y sus derivados son fuentes importantes de información ambiental. Sin embargo, la precisión de las mediciones de áreas y distancias está sacrificada al emplearse proyecciones planas e ignorar conscientemente las irregularidades del relieve. Esto es esencial en estudios ecológicos donde el área que importa medir es la percibida por los organismos y de la que dependen los recursos del hábitat y no su proyección a un plano desde una vista superior. En este trabajo se evalúan las diferencias en las estimaciones de áreas geográficas teniendo en cuenta e ignorando la topografía del terreno, en aplicaciones de estudios ecológicos o de modelación de distribuciones, tomando el archipiélago cubano como referencia. Mediante parcelas y distribuciones de especies virtuales simuladas se evaluó la magnitud de los sesgos en estas estimaciones al ignorarse la información del relieve, empleando un mapa de área topológica derivado de un modelo digital...

¿Why are we ignoring the relief? On the bias of planimetric instead topographic areas in ecological and spatial modeling researches

Ecosistemas

Valor taxonómico de la forma del ala en seis especies de esfíngidos (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae)

The geometric morphometric has become an useful tool to discriminate against species of different... more The geometric morphometric has become an useful tool to discriminate against species of different groups. Specifically in insects, the form of the wings can be used for the identification from these organisms to species level. In this work the form of the contour of the wing of six hawkmoths spe-cies was characterized using geometric morphometric and the capacity this way was evaluated to identify these species. We take 9, 8, 9, 8 and 17 pic-tures of the wings of Agrius cingulata, Cocytius duponchel, Manduca rustica, Protambulix strigilis, Pachylia ficus and Pseudosphinx tetrio respectively. The contour of the wings was described using from the Elliptic Coefficients of Fourier for 30 harmonic. The standardized matrix and the descriptors were reduced with an analysis of principal components and with the autovalues they were carried out analysis of dis-criminant function to analyze the possibility to use the form of the wing to differentiate species. Finally a net neu-ral was designed starting from the autovalues. Four species can be identifying by means of the analysis discrimi-nant function and the neural network. These results can be due, partly to that the used sample size was not very big. It is possible that when increasing this, we obtain a better discrimination percentage for both methods.
Keywords: Moths, geometric morphometry, taxonomy, identification, Elliptic Fourier descriptors

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Evaluación de cinco insecticidas para el control de las poblaciones de Phyllocnistis citrella (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) en cultivos de toronja (var. RubyRed) en Cuba

Herein we evaluated and compared the effect of five insecticides on the po-pulation of Phyllocnis... more Herein we evaluated and compared the effect of five insecticides on the po-pulation of Phyllocnisitis citrella. The study was carried out at the Ceiba Com-pany of Citric in grapefruit cultivations in October of 2012. Five insecticides were applied in individual parcels, and a control was keept without treat-ment. Four samplings were conducted by randomly collecting 27 leaves for each parcel. It was estimated the number of mines, larvae and pupae per leaf and variant. It was calculated the appearance frequency and the propor-tional abundance of P. citrella. The effect of the insecticides on the popula-tion of P. citrella was compared by means of Montecarlo test. There were statistical differences when comparing the action of the applied insecticides, inside oneself evaluation like among these, on the population of P. citrella. The products with more controller action were Indoxacarb and Clorfluazuron. The differences can be due at time of translocation of the product from the epidermis to foliate until the mesophyll.

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Algoritmo para la fotoidentificación individual en lepidópteros diurnos cubanos con patrones de manchas

Individual identification is an important tool for population studies and base of capture-recaptu... more Individual identification is an important tool for population studies and base of capture-recapture methods. Those methods usually require the capture and handling animals’ which can be difficult, harmful, stressful, interrupting their activities or altering their interactions to other individuals, invalidating behavioral studies or even affecting their survival. As an alternative, the use of photoidentification has proven to be an efficient and cost-free method that avoids all those troubles in groups with polymorphic coloration patterns. In this paper, we propose an algorithm to use photoidentification in diurnal butterflies species, using pictures of their fore wings. Using the metathorax center as origin we establish a relative coordinate system and locate centroid position of each spot and calculate its relative area. Using this primary data we calculated 18 secondary variables that were used, in different subsets, to train classification neural networks. The algorithm is presented and validated using a sample of 65 pictures of Heliconius charitonia individuals (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), using the distal spot pattern in their fore wings. The procedure was able to identify more than 90 % of individuals. The backgrounds for the development of the methods in other butterfly species are given.

Keywords: individual identification, digital photography, butterflies, coloration pattern, neural network

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Diversidad de los ensambles de esfíngidos (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) de un bosque siempreverde mesófilo, Sierra del Rosario, Cuba

REVISTA CUBANA DE CIENCIAS BIOLÓGICAS, 2015

Hawkmoths (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) are the most important class of pollinator type in the tropic... more Hawkmoths (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) are the most important class of pollinator type in the tropical forests. In Cuba, little it is known about the ecology of the group, being highly represented in the whole country. In this paper we describe the composition and abundance of the hawkmoth’s assembles in an evergreen forest, Sierra del Rosario, Cuba. A light trap was used to detect the species, specifically the method of the vertical sheet. They were built curves of accumulation of species and curves of Whittaker to analyze the obtained data. It was determined the appearance frequency and the diversity by means of the Chao index. The coexistence patterns were considered to describe associations among species. It was make a cluster analysis using the Ward method. They were 32 species, representing 53% of 60 species report-ed for Cuba. The most represented genera were Erinnyis, Xylophanes, Manduca and Cocytius. The most frequent species were Agrius cingulata and Xylophanes chiron cubanus. The diversity varied among the months. The big-gest diversity was obtained in January and the minor in November. By means of the cluster analysis four groups were detected, two with eight species, one with nine and another with four. This association among species might be caused by the fact they probably used the same resources. It might be also defining aspects such as interspe-cific competition, which is bigger among species of the same group. These species coincide in time-space and share a minor amount of available resources. Keywords: C score, Erinnyis, Xylophanes, Manduca, association, composition, abundance

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POEYANA: Medio siglo de contribución a la Biología en Cuba

Poeyana: half century of contributions to the Biology in Cuba. Since its foundation in 1964, Poey... more Poeyana: half century of contributions to the Biology in Cuba. Since its foundation in 1964, Poeyana has been one of the most important Cuban journals in the divulgation of Biology in Cuba. That is why, our goal is to analyze how this journal has contributed to the development of life sciences in our country. The information contained in all the years of publication from 1964-2007 was reviewed. According to the number of articles published during this period we classified them in 10 specialties, and we obtained the number of new records for science and for Cuba. The number of countries and institutions was determined and the frequency of publication and historical Participation Rate of each research center were calculated. In this period, 510 articles were published in Poeyana, mostly between 1964 and 1990, in which Zoology and Parasitology were the specialties more published. Of these articles, 165 (32%) referred to new records for Cuba and 72 (14%) were new records for the science. To this journal contributed 266 authors from 90 institutions, including 63 foreign authors of 13 countries and 36 research centers. These arguments show the significance of Poeyana for the development and diffusion of biological sciences in Cuba and the need to maintain it, given the quality of the articles and of the authors who published on it.

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Efecto de la aplicación de insecticidas sobre la población de Ageniaspis citricola (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae), controlador natural de Phyllocnistis citrella (Lepidoptera: Gracillidae) en Cuba

Resumen: En este trabajo se evaluó el efecto de cinco insecticidas sobre una población de Agenias... more Resumen: En este trabajo se evaluó el efecto de cinco insecticidas sobre una población de Ageniaspis citricola. El estudio se rea-lizó en la Empresa de Cítricos Ceiba en cultivos de toronja en octubre de 2012. Se aplicaron cinco insecticidas en cinco parcelas o variantes y se dejó un testigo sin tratar para comparar el efecto de estos sobre la población de A. citricola. Se realizaron cuatro muestreos donde se tomaron al azar 27 hojas por variante. Se calculó la correlación entre el número de minas de P. citrella y el número de pupas de A. citricola mediante la prueba de Mantel. Se estimó el número de pupas por hoja y variante y se calculó el porcentaje de parasitismo y la abundancia proporcional de A. citricola. El efecto de los insecticidas sobre la población de A. citricola se comparó mediante pruebas de Montecarlo. No se encontró correlación estadística entre el número de larvas de P. citrella y el número de pupas de A. citricola. El porcentaje de parasitismo y la abundancia de A. citricola fue diferente entre variantes después de la aplicación de los insecticidas. Se encontraron diferencias estadísticas al comparar la acción de los insecticidas aplicados, de-ntro de una misma evaluación como entre estas, sobre la población de A. citricola.
Palabras claves: parasitoides, insecticidas, abundancia, toxicidad, porcentaje de parasitismo

Effect of insecticides application on population of Ageniaspis citricola (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae), natural controller of Phyllocnistis citrella (Lepidoptera: Gracillidae) in Cuba

Abstract: Herein we evaluated the effect of five insecticides on a population of Ageniaspis citricola. The study was carried out at the Ceiba Company of Citric in grapefruit cultivations in October of 2012. Five insecticides were applied in five parcels or variants and a witness was left without trying to compare the effect of these insecticides on a population of A. citricola. Four samplings were performed and 27 leaves were taken randomly for each variant. The correlation between the number of larvae of P. citrella and the number of pupae of A. citricola was calculated by a Mantel test. The number of pupae was estimated for both, leaf and variant, and the percentage of parasitism and the proportional abundance of A. citricola were calculated. The effect of the insecticides on the population of A. citricola was compared by means of Montecarlo test. There was not statistical correlation between the number of larvae of P. citrella and the number of pupae of A. citricola. The percentage of parasitism and the abundance of A. citricola were different among variants after the application of the insecticides. There were statistical differences when comparing the action of the applied insecticides, inside oneself evaluation like among these, on the population of A. citricola.

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