New records of gall-inducer and inquiline insects in a few mediterranean countries, with biological notes

An annotated list of some gall-inducing and inquiline insects found on herbaceous plants and trees in Italy and in other few Mediterranean countries is reported. Among the gall-inducer species, Phanacis phoenixopodos (Mayr, 1882) is new for the Italian peninsula, Callirhytis rufescens (Mayr, 1882), Andricus quercusramuli (L., 1761) and Plagiotrochus amenti Kieffer, 1901 (Cynipidae: Hymenoptera) are new for Sicily; the latter was previously cited from Italy without collecting data. Oecocecis guyonella Guenée, 1870 was found in Libya and Amblypalpis olivierella Ragonot, 1886 (Gelechiidae: Lepidoptera) in Jordan, Libya, Northern Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates. In addition, Saphonecrus gal…

European Red List of Grasshoppers, Crickets and Bush-crickets

The European Red List is a review of the conservation status of European species according to IUCN regional Red Listing guidelines. It identifies those species that are threatened with extinction at the regional level, so that appropriate conservation action can be taken to improve their status. This Red List publication summarises results for all hitherto described native European Orthoptera species (grasshoppers, crickets and bush-crickets). All Orthoptera species (grasshoppers, crickets and bushcrickets) native to or naturalised in Europe before AD 1500 (a total of 1,082 species), have been assessed in this Red List. The geographical scope is continent-wide, extending from Iceland in the…

Night surveys and smell, a mixed method to detect colonies of storm petrel Hydrobates pelagicus

Storm-petrels usually breed in sites difficult to access, making it hard to estimate the number of individuals in a colony or even the presence of a colony. After several years of study in the main colony and diurnal surveys to other caves of the island, we planned an extensive night survey for identifying previously unknown colonies. In the breeding season of 2011 we found 5 new colonies of storm petrels (Hydrobates pelagicus) at Marettimo island, increasing the estimation of the population on this island to approximately 3000 breeding pairs. We propose the use of mixed methods to locate new colonies, as they can be found by the characteristic smell of storm petrels, but under windy condit…

The genus Bolbelasmus in the western and southern regions of the Mediterranean Basin (Coleoptera: Geotrupidae: Bolboceratinae)

The Bolbelasmus Boucomont, 1911 species of the western and southern regions of the Mediterranean Basin (Northern Africa, Iberian Peninsula and France) are revised. The following three new species are described: Bolbelasmus brancoi Hillert & Král sp. nov. and Bolbelasmus howdeni Hillert & Král sp. nov., both from Spain and Gibraltar, and Bolbelasmus nikolajevi Hillert, Arnone, Král & Massa sp. nov. from Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. Bolbelasmus vaulogeri (Abeille de Perrin, 1898) stat. restit. is removed from synonymy with B. bocchus (Erichson, 1841) and reinstated as a separate species. Bolbelasmus romanorum Arnone & Massa, 2010 is considered a junior subjective synonym of B. vaulogeri. Lectoty…

per una "naturaliste oubliée". Jeannette Villepreux Power tra storia, scienza e cultura nella Sicilia dell'800

Order Orthoptera

Authors report an annotated checklist of Orthoptera of UAE, based on their collecting and bibliography.

A taxonomic revision of western Eupholidoptera bush crickets (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae): testing the discrimination power of DNA barcode.

The genus Eupholidoptera includes 46 Mediterranean species distributed from Turkey to Greece, Italy and southern France. In the eastern part of its range, Eupholidoptera has been considered to consist of several distinct species, while in the Balkans and Italian peninsula only E. chabrieri has been recognized. However, the status of some Italian populations, confined to particular geographic areas, remains uncertain. To investigate the delimitation of the Italian taxa of Eupholidoptera, we performed both morphological and molecular analyses. Morphological analysis was carried out by considering diagnostic characters usually used to distinguish different taxa, such as the shape of titillator…

Sexual dichromatism in Mediterranean storm petrels Hydrobates pelagicus melitensis.

We propose the use of a non-invasive technique for sexing the Mediterranean subspecies of the European storm petrel Hydrobates pelagicus melitensis. We found that this subspecies shows sexual dimorphism in rump band width and wing length. Fast and cheap sex identification methods can improve conservation programs and population studies of this species.

The mantids of Caucasus.

The male of Hierodula trancaucasica Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1878, is described here. The external morphology and shape of genitalia are analysed. A comparison with previous data and some biogeographical considerations on Paramantini are given.

La biodiversità dei boschi siciliani. Parte I: l’avifauna

È stata censita la diversità delle specie ornitiche presente in alcune tipologie forestali della Regione Siciliana e la relazione tra le ornitocenosi, le scelte gestionali ed i diversi fattori abiotici e biotici. L’analisi della species richness (= numero delle specie) dimostra che essa è correlata con il bioclima, il diametro massimo degli individui arborei, il valore trofico di tutti gli strati di vegetazione ed il valore trofico dello strato arboreo. I boschi meso-supramediterranei sono più ricchi di specie rispetto ai boschi termomesomediterranei. L’importanza del diametro massimo degli individui arborei, che esprime indirettamente anche il tipo di gestione di un bosco, viene spiegata d…

B1 Was the Ancestor B Chromosome Variant in the Western Mediterranean Area in the Grasshopper Eyprepocnemis plorans.

We analyzed the distribution of 2 repetitive DNAs, i.e. ribosomal DNA (rDNA) and a satellite DNA (satDNA), on the B chromosomes found in 17 natural populations of the grasshopper Eyprepocnemis plorans plorans sampled around the western Mediterranean region, including the Iberian Peninsula, Balearic Islands, Sicily, and Tunisia. Based on the amount of these repetitive DNAs, 4 types of B variants were found: B 1 , showing an equal or higher amount of rDNA than satDNA, and 3 other variants, B 2 , B 24 and B 5 , bearing a higher amount of satDNA than rDNA. The variants B 1 and B 2 varied in size among populations: B 1 was about half the size of the X chromosome in Balearic Islands, but two-thir…

Spring raptor migration at Ustica, southern Italy

The island of Ustica, lying at 38°42’N 13°12’E in the Tyrrhenian Sea, is approximately 60 km north of western Sicily and 270 km northeast of the Cap Bon promontory in Tunisia (fig.1). Although covering an area of only 7,600 ha, its isolation makes it attractive to migrant birds. In order to establish the importance of Ustica for the spring migration of raptors in the Mediterranean basin, counts of migrating raptors were made from the highest point of the Falconiera promontory, which dominates the northeast coast of the island, between 22nd March and 20th May 2002.Each spring, thousands of raptors cross the Mediterranean Sea between Africa and southern Italy during their northward migration …

Gli uccelli delle isole circumsiciliane

Gli autori sintetizzano tutte le informazioni bibliografiche e inedite sulle specie che sino al 30 agosto 2015 sono state contattate almeno una volta nelle 14 isole circumsiciliane (Eolie, Ustica, Egadi, Pantelleria e Pelagie), confrontando alla fine la lista complessiva con quella delle isole Maltesi. In totale sono ad oggi note 434 specie (isole Maltesi incluse); molte di esse hanno mostrato nel corso dei secoli una notevole capacità di colonizzazione, fluttuando nel tempo o addirittura estinguendosi e ricolonizzando alcune isole. Questi piccoli territori in mezzo al mare rappresentano ottimi siti di controllo dell’andamento delle migrazioni nel corso dei decenni; alcune specie hanno chia…