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Biodiversity Journal 2022, Monograph: 187-291

  • Biodiversity Journal, 13 (1): 0187-0280 - MONOGRAPH

    Ignazio Sparacio
    The contribution of the Sicilian naturalists to the knowledge of circumsicilian islands during the 19th century
    https://doi.org/10.31396/Biodiv.Jour.2022.13.1.187.280

    ABSTRACT
    The 19th was a century of great cultural and scientific innovation. Sicily, despite the numerous political and social problems, was not found unprepared to accept and apply all the new demands that were spread from Europe throughout the world. The Sicilian scientific environment, in particular, had a great development and achieved excellent results in all sectors, weakening the original thrust, until it almost completely disappeared, in the early 20th century. In this work only one aspect of this cultural commitment is represented: the contribution of Sicilian naturalists to the study of the circumsicilian islands. Pietro Calcara, already in the early 19th century, began a preliminary and systematic study of all the circumsicilian islands. Other authors devoted themselves only to some topics that interested these islands: Carlo Gemmellaro, for example, who studied the phenomena related to the appearance of the Ferdinandea island and, in other fields of naturalistic research, Andrea Aradas, Francesco Minà Palumbo, Agostino Todaro, Monterosato, Antonio De Gregorio, Gaetano Platania and Giuseppe Zodda. In addition, Giuseppe Riggio, Teodosio De Stefani-Perez, Luigi Failla Tedaldi and Enrico Ragusa studied, from the entomological point of view, only some of these islands with excellent results. Luigi Benoit promoted a systematic exploration of the circumsicilian islands for the study of terrestrial molluscs - and, with the crucial help of Domenico Reina, he improved their malacological knowledge by also describing numerous new taxa; Michele Lo Jacono-Pojero, participating directly in the research, also described numerous new taxa of vascular plants for the Pelagie Islands and the Aeolian Islands and, finally, Enrico Pirajno devoted himself to the naturalistic study of the Aeolian Islands, failing to publish, however, a relevant part of the results obtained. Brief biographical notes and an annotated list of their works on the circumsicilian islands are provided for all these main authors. A specific “Appendix” also includes all the works on these islands carried out by other authors, Sicilian and non-Sicilian, throughout the 19th century. In the conclusions, brief considerations are exposed on the end of Sicilian naturalistic culture of the 19th century and observations on the current and future situation.

  • Biodiversity Journal, 13 (1): 0281-0291 - MONOGRAPH

    Mauro Grano
    The non-indigenous freshwater molluscs, and particularly Helisoma scalare (Jay, 1839) (Gastropoda Planorbidae), of Lake Albano (Rome, Italy)
    https://doi.org/10.31396/Biodiv.Jour.2022.13.1.281.291

    ABSTRACT
    In this work, the allochthonous freshwater molluscs of Lake Albano are examined. Particular attention is paid to the history of the planorbids of this lake and to its recent taxonomic attribution as Helisoma scalare (Jay, 1839).