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Pietro Lo Cascio

  • Biodiversity Journal, 7 (3): 325-330

    Pietro Lo Cascio & Vincent Rivière
    An updated herpetofaunal inventory for some islets of South-Eastern Tunisia

    ABSTRACT
    The present paper provides the results of the herpetological investigations carried out on the satellite islets of Djerba and the Kneiss Archipelago, and an updated list of their herpetofauna. On the whole, the faunal assemblage of the eleven visited islets includes seven species of reptiles, whose richness seems to be related to the islet size. Stenodactylus sthenodactylus (Lichtenstein, 1823) and Malpolon insignitus (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1827) are new records, respectively, for the Djerba satellites and the Kneiss Archipelago, while new localities were recorded for the previously known species.

  • Biodiversity Journal, 6 (2): 529-592 - MONOGRAPH

    Pietro Lo Cascio
    Worldwide checklist of the island mutillid wasps (Hymenoptera Mutillidae)

    ABSTRACT
    The family of Mutillidae includes 776 taxa among species and subspecies recorded for 311 islands worldwide, whose distribution is provided in the present checklist. A brief review of some traits that characterize the insular faunas of these hymenopteran parasitoids is given. The main constraints to the dispersal on islands are due to the apterogyny and the occurrence of suitable hosts. Species richness is generally correlated with island size. Although probably still underestimated, the greatest number of species is found on Sri Lanka (82), Borneo (77), Madagascar (70) and Taiwan (61). Endemics are more than half (55%) of the whole insular mutillids and are found mostly in the oceanic islands and in those that have undergone to a long-time isolation. On the contrary, endemic genera are represented only on few islands (Madagascar, Sri Lanka and, secondarily, New Guinea, Sulawesi and Canary).

  • Biodiversity Journal, 5 (3): 391-396

    Pietro Lo Cascio & Vincent Rivière
    Herpetofaunal inventory of Kuriat and Jbel islets (Tunisia)

    ABSTRACT
    The present paper provides the results of the herpetological investigations carried out on the Kuriat Archipelago, in the Khnis Bay, and the islet of Jbel, off the harbor of Echebba. Six reptile species on the whole have been found on the studied islets. Tarentola fascicularis (Daudin, 1802), familia Phyllodactylidae, occurring on Great Kuriat, and Trachylepis vittata (Olivier, 1804), familia Scincidae, detected on all the three islets, are recorded for the first time for the islands of Tunisia.

  • Biodiversity Journal, 3 (4): 311-330

    Pietro Lo Cascio & Salvatore Pasta
    Lampione, a paradicmatic case of Mediterranean island biodiversity

    ABSTRACT
    The papers aims at underlining the “unespected” value of Lampione’s biological heritage, as well as the fragility of its ecosystem. Despite its very little size, this islet harbours a very rich pool of plant and animal species of high biological and/or conservation interest. Special attention is paid to the biogeographic meaning of local endemics, on local extinction and turnover processes, on some ecological or biological patterns which contribute to the distinctiveness of local biota. However, further investigations are needed in order to complete the list of animals and to monitor the demographic trends of all species. In particular, it is necessary to assess if local seagull colony may represent a major threat for local diversity.

  • Biodiversity Journal, 3 (1): 003-012

    Michel Delaugerre, Flavia Grita, Pietro Lo Cascio & Ridha Ouni
    Lizards and Eleonora’s Falcon (Falco eleonorae Gené, 1839), a Mediterranean micro-insular commensalism

    ABSTRACT
    Lizards and Eleonora’s falcon occur on many Mediterranean islets. Data given in literature and new observations concerning their asymmetrical interactions, which have been reviewed and illustrated, allow to regard those as a commensal relationship typical on these micro-insular ecosystems. Some considerations on the ecological, ecomorphological and phenological traits involved on this commensalism are also briefly discussed.

  • Biodiversity Journal, 2 (2): 089-096

    Pietro Lo Cascio & Massimo Capula
    Does diet in lacertid lizards reflect prey availability? Evidence for selective predation in the Aeolian wall lizard, Podarcis raffonei (Mertens, 1952) (Reptilia, Lacertidae)

    ABSTRACT
    In this paper the invertebrate fauna occurring on Scoglio Faraglione, a tiny Aeolian island (Aeolian Archipelago, NE Sicily) inhabited by a population of the critically endangered lacertid lizard Podarcis raffonei (Mertens, 1952), was censused at different seasons and the resulting data were then compared with data obtained analysing prey composition and prey abundance in the diet of the lizards occurring on the same islet. The diet of Podarcis raffonei was mainly based on insects and other arthropods. The results indicate that diet composition is not directly influenced by prey availability and temporal prey abundance, and that there is strong evidence indicating selective predation. Lizards prey upon a number of arthropod categories fewer than that recorded in field. Some invertebrate taxa (e.g. Diptera and Gastropoda) are really less attractive for lizards and are rarely preyed or not preyed at all despite their spatial and/or temporal abundance. This suggests that Podarcis raffonei is able to operate a hierarchical choice within the range of prey items constituting its prey spectrum, probably through the ability to discriminate between prey chemicals or visually oriented predation.

  • Biodiversity Journal, 2 (2): 051-052
    Pietro Lo Cascio
    Reptiles of Socotra
  • Biodiversity Journal, 15 (3): 509-516

    Pietro Lo Cascio & Piero Leo
    A new Trachyscelis Latreille, 1809 from Cape Verde Islands (Coleoptera Tenebrionidae)
    https://doi.org/10.31396/Biodiv.Jour.2024.15.3.509.516
    https://www.zoobank.org/B2828CA2-90F6-4345-9131-AA263A97A26D

    ABSTRACT
    A new species of Trachyscelis Latreille, 1809 (Coleoptera Tenebrionidae) endemic to some islands of the Cape Verde archipelago is described. It differs from the widely distributed T. aphodioides Latreille, 1809 for the testaceous teguments, the incomplete set of elytral striae where only 1-3 are entirely visible, the smaller eyes with 50 ommatidia and the reduced wings.

  • Biodiversity Journal, 14 (4): 0741-0747

    Ignazio Sparacio, Pietro Lo Cascio, Calogero Muscarella, Salvatore Surdo, Amedeo Falci & Francesco Allegrino
    A new subspecies of Cicindela (Cicindela) campestris Linnaeus, 1758 (Coleoptera Cicindelidae) from the Aeolian Islands (Italy)
    https://doi.org/10.31396/Biodiv.Jour.2023.14.4.741.747
    https://www.zoobank.org/A5E8037D-E05E-4513-9C98-59636F5C7C11

    ABSTRACT
    Cicindela (Cicindela) campestris didyme n. ssp. from the islands of Salina and Lipari (Aeolian Archipelago, Sicily, Italy) is here described. The new subspecies differs from other Italian populations of C. campestris, in particular from the closest ones of Sicily (C. campestris siculorum Schilder, 1953) and Calabria (C. campestris calabrica Mandl, 1944) for some morphological characters such as the shape of the clypeus, the granules of the elytra less elevated and more sparse and the different aedeagus. It is immediately recognizable by more or less extensively green-brown color of the dorsal surface often entirely red-brown.