Search results for "cilia"
showing 10 items of 3650 documents
A morphological and mitochondrial assessment of Apis mellifera from Palermo, Italy
1998
A characterization of the honey bees from western Sicily (Palermo, Italy) is presented. Mor- phological comparisons to A. m. ligustica were made using data taken from honey bee populations from southeastern (Bari) and central (Emilia Romagna) Italy. The honey bees of the Palermo area have distinct morphological differences compared to the mainland honey bees. The mtDNA haplotype common in subspecies within the African lineage of A. mellifera predominated in the Sicilian honey bee samples (13 out of 16). These results suggest both the potential and the desirability to expend efforts to conserve A. m. sicula. © Inra/DIB/AGIB/Elsevier, Paris
Three endemic Aphaenogaster from the Siculo-Maltese archipelago and the Italian Peninsula: part of a hitherto unrecognized species group from the Mag…
2019
Abstract More than 100 years ago, the Italian myrmecologist Carlo Emery described two endemic Sicilian ants: Aphaenogaster sicula Emery, 1908, which he originally considered a subspecies of A. crocea André, 1881, and A. fiorii Emery, 1915 stat. nov., which he believed was a subspecies of A. gibbosa (Latreille, 1798). Males of the two species and the queen of A. fiorii were never described. The scarcity of information contained in the original description led to several misunderstandings by subsequent authors: for example, A. sicula was later elevated to species-rank on the basis of misidentified material of A. fiorii stat. nov. We redescribe the two species, adding the descriptions of their…
Genomic Analysis and Lineage Identification of SARS-CoV-2 Strains in Migrants Accessing Europe Through the Libyan Route
2021
Many African countries, representing the origin of the majority of refugees, asylum-seekers, and other migrants, toward regions bordering on the Mediterranean area, are experiencing sustained local transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Sicily is one of the main entry gates of migrants crossing into Europe. We conducted a pilot study, based on the full-genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 strains isolated from migrants coming to Sicily by crossing the Mediterranean Sea, with the aim to investigate the viral genome polymorphism and to describe their genetic variations and the phylogenetic relationships. On June 21, a nongovernmental organization vessel rescu…
A survey of wild plant species for food use in Sicily (Italy) - results of a 3-year study in four Regional Parks
2016
Abstract Background This paper illustrates the results of a study carried out in four Regional Parks of Sicily (Italy), concerning traditional knowledge on food use of wild plant species. The main aims of the paper were: (i) to verify which wild plant species are used for food purpose in the local culture based on information provided by elderly inhabitants (ii) to verify the presence of wild plant species which have not been cited for food use in previous studies in the Mediterranean area (iii) to determine how many of the most frequently cited wild plant species are cultivated by the local population in the four Sicilian Parks. Methods Semi-structured interviews were carried out in the lo…
A ricardian analysis of the impact of climate change on permanent crops in a mediterranean region
2019
This is the first study which explores the impact of climate change in Sicily, a small Mediterranean region of Southern Europe. According to research, Mediterranean area has shown large climate shifts in the last century and it has been identified as one of the most prominent “Hot-Spots” in future climate change projections. Since agriculture is an economic activity which strongly depends on climate setting and is particularly responsive to climate changes, it is important to understand how such changes may affect agricultural profitability in the Mediterranean region. The aim of the present study is to assess the expected impact of climate change on permanent crops cultivated in Sicilian r…
Seagrasses along the Sicilian coasts
2010
All seagrass species known from the Mediterranean basin have been recorded along the Sicilian coast, where studies have been carried out at a very local scale and information is fragmented or confined to the grey literature. The objective of this article is to summarise and evaluate current knowledge on seagrass species on the Sicilian coasts, providing an overview of species distribution, genetic diversity, biology and ecology, based on the literature and unpublished data. Most literature studies have been carried out on Posidonia oceanica meadows because of their wide distribution, complexity and ecological importance. In this study, the analyses carried out on P. oceanica structural and …
Assessing geographical variation on whistle acoustic structure of three Mediterranean populations of common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)
2017
Whistles are acoustic signals produced particularly during social interactions. Here, we compare whistles by bottlenose dolphins from three Mediterranean areas (Croatia, Sicily and Sardinia) to investigate the presence of acoustic divergence and to discuss the possible causes of variability. Whistle parameters differ significantly between populations, but PCA highlights that the majority of variability is due to a limited number of frequency parameters. Cluster and DFA show that the Croatian population is acoustically divergent from the western populations of Sicily and Sardinia. This divergence could be consistent with geographical isolation, and a possible genetic differentiation between …
First assessment of the rose shrimp, Parapenaeus longirostris (Lucas, 1846) in the central Mediterranean
1995
Abstract Between June 1989 and May 1990 a 1 year programme based on commercial samples and statistics was carried out to assess Parapenaeus longirostris in the Sicilian Channel (Central Mediterranean), since most trawl-fishing occurs outside the area currently covered by trawl surveys of the National Research Council Institute based in Mazara del Vallo. Fishing takes place on three distinct grounds, where three different sub-stocks belonging to the same population could be identified based on length and maturity data. Length-based methods allowed calculation of all parameters needed to fit Beverton and Holt's (1957) and Thompson and Bell's (1934) models, while natural mortality could be est…
Cetacean strandings and museum collections: A focus on Sicily island crossroads for mediterranean species
2021
The study examined the extent of the cetacean strandings in Italy, with a particular focus on Sicily Island. The paper aimed to contribute to the description of a pattern that contemplates the “regular and rare” cetacean species passage along the Sicilian coast. The estimate of marine cetacean strandings was extrapolated from the National Strandings Data Bank (BDS—Banca Dati Spiaggiamenti) and evaluated according to a subdivision in three coastal subregions: the Tyrrhenian sub-basin (northern Sicilian coast), the Ionian sub-basin (eastern Sicilian coast), and the Channel of Sicily (southern Sicilian coast). Along the Italian coast, more than 4880 stranding events have been counted in the pe…
Phytoplankton colonization patterns. Is species richness depending on distance among freshwaters and on their connectivity?
2015
Phytoplankton assemblages in two Sicilian water bodies were compared to test the hypothesis that colonization events and the successful establishment of a new species in an aquatic ecosystem may depend on the number of water bodies in a given area and on their relative distance. The two ecosystems are both natural, shallow lakes and they are protected sites hosting a rich avifauna. Lake Biviere di Gela is located in an area with a high density of ponds, whereas Lake Pergusa is an isolated waterbody without other aquatic ecosystems in its surroundings. Both lakes had almost disappeared about 10 years ago because of the over-exploitation of their main inflows. They were therefore re-filled us…