Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

The purpose of this article is to situate in epistemological and ontological terms a discussion that at times has been instrumentalized in current debates on research in Social Work and in general in the social sciences. In this sense, it questions and reflects on that place of otherness from three places or theoretical-ethical-political perspectives. The first refers to a critique that legitimizes the idea of culture and identity in the singular, a dominocentric perspective that homogenizes and exoticizes otherness and/or constitutes it as a cultural essence. Second, culture and identity assumed as fragments in an arbitrary dichotomous view that separates and substantiates the ideas of nature and culture. And, finally, we locate a configurationist and situational slope from which it is possible to understand symbolic orders in a historical perspective where the gaze of the other is overcome as a simple individual alienated from the orders and structures of power.

The present study reports for the first time the presence of the squirrelfish Sargocentron coruscum for the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. The sighting took place at Lobos reef during a night sampling on the leeward slope at 3 m depth. An individual of approximately 15 cm was observed among coral rock hollows. This record expands the distribution range of S. coruscum for the southwestern Gulf of Mexico and increases the knowledge of the ichthyological richness of the region, which continues to increase with new findings in recent years.

Photographic material and descriptions of Cissites maculata (Swederus, 1787) are provided based on observations of adults, eggs and first instar larvae found on a wooden beam near the entrance of a Xylocopa sp. nest in Venezuela. Egg mass and hatchings were characterized over time and some measurements were made on eggs, larvae and adults using a digital technique with graphic design tools. The egg mass consisted of ≈ 23400 eggs and one female did not contribute to the laying. Egg size was larger than those documented for Cissites auriculata (Champion, 1892). This work complements what has been described for the species and expands the scarce information on its presence in Venezuela, including aspects that have not been documented in the country.

This contribution deals with the altitudinal distribution in the American continent shown by the whip spiders belonging to the genus Charinus Simon, 1892, a subject previously unstudied. For this task 75 scientific papers devoted to the taxonomy and ecology of this group were analyzed. Most (62.0%) of these species have been found below 301 m a.s.l.; whereas 24.0% habit between 301 and 600 m and only four species (5.0%) have been recorded from localities between 1201 and 1920 m a.s.l., being the last altitude the highest recorded for the genus in this continent. All the New World species that have been found higher than 1000 m a.s.l. are from South America; nevertheless, the only South American countries with quite data on this aspect are Ecuador and Peru.

The present work provides the first data on the distribution of Bolinopsis vitrea in the Gulf of Mexico. Several specimens of B. vitrea were recorded and photographed between 2015 to 2018 in Tuxpan, Enmedio, Tanhuijo and Lobos reefs; ecosystems belonging to the Lobos-Tuxpan Reef System (SALT) located north of Veracruz, Mexico. The confirmation of the species was made in 2019 through two specimens collected in the vicinity of the SALT. On the reefs explored, 5–80 individuals were observed scattered in the water column at 1 m depth. With the record of B. vitrea, the richness of ctenophores for the Gulf of Mexico increases to 13 species.

The mite Ornithonyssus bursa (Berlese) (Acari: Mesostigmata: Macronyssidae) and a case of dermatitis caused to humans are reported for the first time for the Dominican Republic. The case was related to a mite infestation originating in nests of Passer domesticus L. It is suspected that cases like this could be occurring more frequently and be confused with allergies.

A new species of marine amphipod of the genus Quadrimaera is described from material collected from Crandon Park, Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA, associated to Penicillus spp. about 0.5 m water depth. The differences with the closer species are also presented.

The Family Neobisiidae, the genera Microbisium Chamberlin, 1930 and Ideoblothrus Balzan, 1891 (Family Syarinidae), as well as the species M. parvulum (Banks, 1895) and I. pygmaeus (Hoff, 1964), are recorded for the first time in Hispaniola. These records are based on three males, four females and two deutonymps collected in the Provinces La Vega and Barahona, and the National District, Dominican Republic. With these findings, the list of pseudoscorpions known from Hispaniola is increased to 14 families, 32 genera, and 39 species.

Our aim is to present a new statistical index for lexical studies. The lexical centrality index (LCI) stems from a constructive historical-critical revision of the Hispanic lexico-statistical tradition, centering especially on the nature of the lexical availability index which, when it appeared, served as a complement to the lexical frequency index. The revision goes back to the origins of traditional pan-Hispanic lexical projects, whose relevance is well known in the field of lexico-statistics. The LCI has possible applications which continue in this tradition and which open up ways of studying that complement those used in previous projects.

In the backyard systems in urban and semi-urban areas of the central highlands of Mexico, agriculture and livestock activities are practiced. In order to know the behavior of the economic variables in these farms, a non-probabilistic sampling by quotas was carried out, using the snowball technique, which consisted of applying surveys to a total of 92 producers, which was designed to collect information on the general characteristics of the backyard, social, and economic system, as well as the products generated from agriculture and livestock. With the information collected, an inventory of the plant and animal species that are produced in the backyard system was made, in addition to estimating economic income, variable costs, fixed costs, total costs, profits and the benefit-cost ratio for carrying out livestock activities agriculture or both in backyard systems. It was found that farmers have an average space in the backyard of 360.5 m2 to carry out activities of agriculture, livestock or both. Farmers who carry out agriculture and livestock activities generate higher income and economic profits, compared to those who only carry out one activity, obtaining a benefit of 27.44 cents for each dollar invested, compared to 16.64 and 18.00 cents for developing the activity agriculture and livestock respectively. The agricultural and livestock activity in the backyard systems of the highlands of Mexico, represent an option to generate economic income for families, and generate food products for self-consumption and reduce expenses for food purchases in the family nucleus.