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Simone Cianfanelli

  • Biodiversity Journal, 3 (4): 527-542

    Simone Cianfanelli, Gianbattista Nardi & Marco Bodon
    A new record for the Italian fauna: Plagyrona placida (Shuttleworth, 1852) from Sardinia and Southern Italy (Gastropoda Pulmonata Valloniidae)

    ABSTRACT
    Plagyrona placida (Shuttleworth, 1852) is a terrestrial minute species with a wide but fragmented distribution, known from some of the Macaronesian Islands of the Canaries and the Madeira archipelago, from Corsica Island, from some European countries (Portugal, Albania and Greece) and from Northern Africa (Algeria). This species has been recently discovered in Italy (Sardinia, Campania and Calabria) for the first time; data of sampling and the characteristics of the Italian populations are discussed in this note. P. placida lives in the Mediterranean forest or bush environments, but its specific habitat is not known because it has been found, at least in Italy, in alluvial debris collected along streams and in litter. Even if this species has not been recorded until now, the undisturbed habitat and its rarity suggest that it may be native to Italy, and not accidentally introduced by man through trees used for reforestation or through imported vegetables, as already happened for others small species.

  • Biodiversity Journal, 14 (4): 0673-0687

    Marco Bodon, Simone Cianfanelli, Mariaelena Fedi, Serena Barone, Lucia Liccioli & Alberto Girod
    Further records and dating of Pseudunio auricularius (Spengler, 1793) (Bivalvia Margaritiferidae), from Cagnola Canal (Veneto, Italy)
    https://doi.org/10.31396/Biodiv.Jour.2023.14.4.673.687

    ABSTRACT
    Pseudunio auricularius (Spengler, 1793) (Bivalvia Margaritiferidae) is one of the largest European freshwater bivalves; it is considered critically endangered worldwide, and it is extinct in Italy. A large number of damaged ancient shells have been collected in 1991 from Cagnola Canal (Province of Padua, Veneto, Italy) and radiocarbon dated. The results indicate that the extinction of the local P. auricularius population in Veneto occurred in the second half of 1800. The direct anthropic impact may have been the source of significant disturbance to the local extinction of P. auricularius.