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The hoverflies (Diptera Syrphidae) as Bioindicators of Biodiversity The hoverflies, the Syrph the Net database and a dicotomic key to the Italian genera of Syrphidae When studying biodiversity, biological indicators in the form of living organisms observed in the field can be the best tools for collection of information about species diversity. A good biodiversity bioindicator should: have high species (or other taxa) richness in a wide spectrum of habitats and ecological niches; show taxonomic stability; possess biological features linked to the environmental parameter under study; be readily identifiable; be amenable to standardised sampling methods; have its ecology and geographical distribution adequately known. The Syrphidae (hoverflies) are a family of Diptera Aschiza which satisfies these criteria. There are more than 6000 described species of hoverfly in the world, approximately 900 of which are found in Europe. In the Italian syrphid fauna there are 94 genera and 520 known species. Our work shows the use of hoverflies as bioindicators of biodiversity, thanks to the “Syrph the Net” database and to the dichotomous key for the identitification of the Italian genera of Syrphidae. Syrph the Net (StN) is a database which uses the Microsoft Excel and Word softwares. Its development started in 1990. From the beginning, its aim was to produce a predictive tool to assess the capacity of sites and their habitats to support biodiversity and to aid in identifying priorities in the management of biodiversity itself. A review of its first 20 years is included in this volume. A central premise of the StN database is that syrphid species are sufficiently closely associated with particular habitats for each habitat (in a CORINE sense) to have its own characteristic assemblage of syrphids, making it possible to predict the potential syrphid fauna of a site from the habitats occurring there. Syrphid larval biology is unusually diverse and different syrphid species have larvae in most parts of nearly all freshwater and terrestrial macrohabitats. They are only absent from the deeper water of large water bodies like lakes and rivers and from cave s ystems. In consequence, a site list of syrphid species can provide information about most parts of nearly all the macrohabitats found there. The links between syrphids and macrohabitats and syrphids and microhabitats make prediction of site faunas possible. Comparison between the observed and predicted syrphid fauna can then be used to identify which parts of a site are “underperforming” in maintaining its potential biodiversity and which parts instead have a good Biodiversity Maintenance Potential (BMP). In the years 2003-2011 the Ecological Station of the Natural History Museum of Ferrara coordinated the study of the hoverfly fauna of 12 localities in the province of Ferrara. Sampling was performed in a standard manner using Malaise traps operated for at least 8 months in each locality. The hoverflies were collected in 70° ethanol, sorted and then dry mounted if necessary for species identification. All the material from these surveys is stored in a collection at the Museum. Presence/absence data were used in multivariate analyses and to perform the StN procedure. Cluster analysis divided the sampled sites into three well defined clusters: the first one is coincident with the Natura 2000 SCI “Bosco della Panfilia”, a forest located on the left bank of the Reno river and clearly different from the other sites. The second cluster gathers 6 sites that are still disturbed by man’s activities or were heavily disturbed until recently. The last cluster is made up by 5 localities, three of them are forest ecosystems inside the SCI-SPA Natura 2000 site of the Po River, another one is a natural oasis with restored wetland and forest habitats and the last one is an almost undisturbed area still under Army management, characterised by hedges and meadows that are cut for forage once or twice a year. MDS analysis confirmed the alignment of the localities along a gradient ranging from the forested habitat of the Bosco della Panfilia to a conventional agricultural ecosystem called “Fondo Rastello”. Some very interesting species were collected: Anasimyia contracta and Tropidia scita are typical of marsh habitats, Brachyopa scutellaris and Ferdinandea cuprea are species of forests with old trees, Epistrophe melanostoma is found in periodically submerged forests and Xanthogramma citrofasciatum is typical of dry clearings with good soil drainage. Pipiza festiva was detected for the first time in the floodplain of the river Po. The StN procedure has been performed both for single localities and for selected sites grouped together, in cases where it was possible to detect a common reference habitat: as in the 4 localities belonging to the SCI-SPA of the Po river and the 3 localities with an urban park function, in the surround to the city of Ferrara. The values of BMP were never high, even if good situations were not lacking. The best preserved area proved to be the military area Palmirano zona radar (BMP = 61%). Three sites along the Po river were well preserved (Isola Bianca BMP = 60%, Acquedotto and Bosco di Porporana BMP = 51%), while the Cave riverine site, located in an area with many infrastructural intrusions, was one of the worst performing, with BMP = 24%. However, the floodplain forests taken as a whole have shown a good level of performance, with BMP= 62%. The forest Bosco della Panfilia has PMB = 46%, an intermediate value probably relating to the absence of old trees. As a group the urban parks had BMP = 56%, even though individually the three sites had low values (24, 34 and 39%): the different habitats considered together have a good potential for the preservation of biodiversity in the urban ecosystem. A pond ecosystem in an agricultural landscape had BMP = 35%. Both the sites “Traghetto” and “Oasi Valentini”, that show a mix of forest and recently restored wetland ecosystems, reached BMP = 44%: these ecosystems are still rather young but the sites host many unexpected species that prefer forest habitats (“Traghetto”) or species requiring high environmental quality (“Oasi Valentini”), proving that the sites are developing. Our research shows that, in spite of a monotonous landscape in the Eastern part of the Po River plain, some areas still remain as important sources of biodiversity. We go from the heavily disturbed and poor sites such as “Fondo Rastello” and “Cave” to other localities such as Palmirano and Acquedotto, where the number of hoverflies species doubles, or the forest “Bosco della Panfilia” that hosts as many as 5 exclusive species out of 83 collected. But each site could improve its performance in supporting biodiversity if adequately managed and the importance of no area should be underestimated, in ameliorating landscape connectivity. The list of Syrphidae recorded from Ferrara Province has been compared with the list of Italian species expected in association with the CORINE habitats recorded in the province. The StN procedure applied to a larger area (Ferrara Province) highlighted the types of habitat in a better state of preservation. In addition a list of expected species for the Ferrara Province has been produced. The volume includes a dichotomous key to the genera of the Italian hoverflies: this should be a tool useful in preliminary analyses of the communities of Syrphidae, making it easier to adopt the hoverflies as bioindicators of biodiversity. Finally, the book is completed by a checklist of the 94 hoverfly species found in the Province of Farrara during this study, and by others in the period 2003-2011. Distribution maps have also been prepared for the species, using a database managed with ArcView 3.2. The maps are available on line in the Museum’s website at the URL http://storianaturale.comune.fe.it/index.phtml?id=564.
Here we present the update of the previous list of syrphid species of “Bosco della Fontana” (Birtele et al. 2002), which brings the total number to 76. Moreover, for clarification we add that Paragus pecchiolii (Rondani, 1857) is the current name for P. majoranae (Rondani, 1857) (Sommaggio 2002). All the material is preserved in the collection of the “Centro Nazionale per lo Studio e la Conservazione della Biodiversità Forestale” (Marmirolo, Mantua). The present nomenclature follows Speight (2004).
16. 2011 Mazzei A., Bonacci T., Contarini E., † Zetto Brandmayr T., & Brandmayr P., 2011 – La Coleotterofauna saproxilobionte del Parco Nazionale della Sila ( Calabria, Italia). Atti, XXIII Congresso Nazionale Italiano di Entomologia 13-16 Giugno 2011.Sessione Ecologia ed Etologia. Erredi Grafiche Editoriali. Genova, maggio 2011. ISBN 978-88-96493-04-5
Saproxylic beetles in Sila National Park, Calabria region, Italy] The paper reports the faunistical list of Saproxylic beetles monitored during the research project “Conservation measures of Sites Nature 2000” in Sila National Park, started by Park Board in 2009 in collaboration with the University of Calabria. 35 coleoptera species have been recorded, some with particular naturalistic and conservation honor, protected by European standards. Among the elements of particular ecological interest, there are samples of Cucujius spp, whose last records date from the early twentieth century. Data of collection, subjected to statistical qualitative analysis, provide a clear correlation between spatial and temporal distribution of Saproxylic beetles populations and the forest area structure, subjected to different forest managements over the last century in Sila. Key words: Saproxylic organism, species richness, community structure, dead wood.
Quaderno di Studi e Notizie di Storia Naturale della Romagna, 2015
Quaderni del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Ferrara, 2015
La Riserva naturale biogenetica di Camaldoli. 1012-2012. Mille anni di rapporto uomoforesta, 2012
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Bollettino della Società Entomologica Italiana, 2013
Memorie del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Verona - 2. serie - Monografie Naturalistiche 5-, 2018
La Riserva Naturale Integrale di Sasso Fratino: 1959-2009. 50 anni di conservazione della biodiversità, 2009
Italian Journal of Zoology, 2011
Forest Ecology and Management, 2006