Works in Italy

The Mediterranean Region is considered one of the areas most exposed to climate warming, with artificial lakes and coastal lagoons representing particularly vulnerable ecosystems,…

Dichotrachelus sonjae sp. nov. was discovered in a cold north-exposed scree slope in the Togano ridge area in Piemonte North of Val Grande. It is described and compared with the m…

A new species of concealer moths (Oecophoridae), Denisia cryptica sp. nov., is described from specimens collected in the south-western Alps (Italy, France). It differs from simila…

Ambrosia beetles are highly successful as invaders because they are often transported internationally with wood packaging and other wood products and because their inbreeding mati…

The larva of Isoperla orobica Ravizza, 1975, an endemic Alpine species, is described with information about the distribution and ecology in Switzerland. New barcodes were generate…

Identifying alien species is important to ensure the early detection of biological invasions and survey shifts in species distributions in the context of global change. Here, we r…

Megacraspedus peslieri was described from the Pyrenees in 2018 and subsequently also discovered at a few localities in the northern Cottian Alps (Italy). The hitherto unknown fema…

A focused search in very high (2500–3200 m asl) Alpine mountain tops in France resulted in the discovery of the very rare Alpine-endemic syrphid Platycheirus altomontis Merlin & N…

Analysis of wing pattern, genital morphology and results of DNA barcoding indicates that the name Dichrorampha montanana sensu auct. actually comprises two species. D. alpestrana …

The taxonomy of the Palaearctic Caryocolum schleichi species group is revised, leading to a largely new species concept. Initially described as four different species (C. schleich…

In order to clarify the identity of Paracacoxenus kaszabi Okada, 1973, a species described from Mongolia, the morphological structures of one male paratype, collected at 1,750 m a…

Die Anzahl verlässlich gemeldeter Taxa (Arten und Unterarten) der Curculionoidea aus der Schweiz beträgt momentan 1081. Funde von Orchestes calceatus (Germar, 1821) werden hier er…

Das ursprünglich aus den Südwestalpen beschriebene Taxon Nematopogon adansoniella (de Villers, 1789) wird neu bewertet. Auf Grund von DNA-Barcodeuntersuchungen sowie morphologisch…

We revise the Alpine bee taxa related to Andrena bicolor (Fabricius, 1775), including A. montana Warncke, 1973 and A. allosa Warncke, 1975, the status of which has remained conten…

Cultivated and suburban areas are usually considered unfavourable to the vulnerable components of biodiversity and regarded as not interesting from a conservation point of view. H…

Isolated fragments of semi-natural habitats are often embedded in a landscape matrix that is hostile to organisms of conservation concern. Such habitat islands are prone to change…

Mountain ecosystems are particularly sensitive to changes in climate and land cover, but at the same time, they can offer important refuges for species on the opposite of the more…

The availability of quantitative long term datasets on the phytobenthic assemblages of the Mar Piccolo of Taranto (southern Italy, Mediterranean Sea), a lagoon like semi-enclosed …

A number of studies have reported decreasing trends of acidifying and N deposition inputs to forest areas throughout Europe and the USA in recent decades. There is a need to asses…

Benthic prokaryotes are the key-players in C-cycling at the sediment-seawater interface, one of the largest biologically active interfaces on Earth. Here, microbial-mediated proce…

Reservoirs are primary water resources for many uses in the Mediterreanean region and need dedicated studies for understanding the complexity of their dynamics particularly vulner…

In benthic studies, the identification of organisms at the species level is known to be the best source for ecological and biological information even if time-consuming and expens…

Phytoplankton community structure was analysed from 2010 to 2017 at C1-LTER, the coastal Long-Term Ecological Research station located in the Gulf of Trieste, which is the norther…

The genus Opetiopalpus from the family of checkered beetles (Coleoptera: Cleridae) is represented by 28 species worldwide, with 11 species found in the Palearctic and only four sp…

Abundance and composition of the planktonic tintinnid ciliates were studied in the Gulf of Trieste (Northern Adriatic Sea, NE Mediterranean Sea) from July 1998 to July 2016. Tinti…

Information on the presence of Pinna nobilis (Linnaeus, 1758) in the Mediterranean Sea is largely reported in literature because it is an endemic and, at the same time, endangered…

To pursue a proper conservation of narrow endemic species, the knowledge of basic reproductive strategies is crucial to plan adequate conservation activities. One of the most evol…

Isolated populations are usually subject to low fitness and reduced genetic diversity, both of which may negatively affect their survival and adaptive potential. Hence, these issu…

Morimus asper is a morphologically variable longhorn beetle that occurs in large parts of southern and central Europe. Although this saproxylic beetle is widespread in old-growth …

The Life Project “Monitoring of insects with public participation” (LIFE11 NAT/IT/000252) had as the main objective to develop and test methods for the monitoring of five beetle s…

Lucanus cervus is one of the most charismatic saproxylic beetles, widely distributed in Europe. The species is typical of mature deciduous forests, especially oak woodlands. Loss …

Morimus asper reproduces mainly in freshly dead wood and, as a consequence, populations are affected by modern forestry practices. The taxon M. funereus, now incorporated into the…

Lichenophanes varius (Illiger, 1801) is a Turanic-European-Mediterranean species. In most of European countries, this species is protected at different levels and it is classified…

The European stag beetle, Lucanus cervus, is a flagship species for biodiversity conservation of old-growth forests and is protected under the Habitats Directive. Although it has …

Animal body size commonly exhibits a remarkable variation in response to environmental conditions. Latitude, when correlated with temperature, rainfall and seasonality, represents…

Roads are a pervasive feature in the landscape, and their ecological effects on vertebrate wildlife have been well documented. The main types of effect described are mainly negati…

Body color abnormalities can significantly affect reptile fitness, as coloration plays a key role in ecological interactions such as mate selection, predator avoidance, and protec…

The recent elevation of the Western Grass Snake, Natrix helvetica, from subspecies status prompted an assessment of its natural history and ecological traits compared to closely r…

We analysed a snake species community of a Mediterranean 0.2 ha ecotonal area during a 21 year time span, monitoring two colubrid and one viperid snake species. We carried out ana…

An infection event of the spittlebug Philaenus spumarius (Hemiptera, Aphrophoridae) has been described, for the first time, in northwest Italy. The causative agents were two entom…

Molecular analyses of soil and water commonly reveal large proportions of fungal taxa that cannot be assigned to any taxonomic or functional groups. Some of these so-called dark t…

Laurus nobilis is an important Mediterranean tree and shrub native to Italy that is also commercially grown as spice and ornamental plant. Field surveys conducted since 2021 in Si…

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi - Glomeromycota and Endogonomycetes - comprise multiple species and higher-level taxa that have remained undescribed. We propose a mixed morpholo…

Based on the analysis of both historical and recent collections, this paper reports an annotated list of taxa which are new to the lichen biota of Italy or of its administrative r…

The genus Caliciopsis (Eurotiomycetes, Coryneliales) includes saprobic and plant pathogenic species. Caliciopsis canker is caused by Caliciopsis pinea Peck, a species first report…

We present phylogenetic analyses of the fruticose Ramalinaceae based on extensive collections from many parts of the world, with a special focus on the Vizcaíno deserts in north-w…

Seagrasses provide invaluable ecosystem services yet very little is known about their root mycobiont diversity and distribution. Here we focused on the dominant Mediterranean seag…

Elbamycella rosea sp. nov., introduced in the new genus Elbamycella, was collected in the Mediterranean Sea in association with the seagrass Posidonia oceanica and with the brown …

Sporophores of a new Psathyrella species have been reported for the first time as growing at the base of Cladium mariscus culms in the Botanical Garden of the University of Calabr…

Rhodocybe fumanellii is described from Italy as a new species based both on morphological and molecular nrITS/nrLSU data. It belongs in sect. Rufobrunnea and is characterised by m…