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While the larval morphology and peculiar behaviour of several epigean species of molopine beetles (Carabidae: Pterostichini: Molopina) have been known for several years, we know very little about the specialized subterranean species of some genera endemic to the Tyrrhenian area, including Molopidius Jeannel, 1942, Oscadytes Lagar, 1975, Henrotius Jeannel, 1953, Zariqueya Jeannel, 1924, and Speomolops Patrizi, 1955. In this paper, we describe and illustrate the third instar larva of Speomolops sardous Patrizi, 1955, a specialized troglobitic beetle endemic to eastern Sardinia. Diagnostic features include the lack of stemmata; the presence of a longitudinal, membranous furrow along the dorsal surface of the mandibles; a small retinaculum; and a uniquely shaped seta FR8. We compare the morphology of this larva with some of its close relatives in the genera Molops Bonelli, 1810, Tanythrix Schaum, 1858, and Typhlochoromus Moczarsky, 1913. Some data are also given about the habitat and bionomics of the larval stages of Speomolops sardous, which show an obligate, fossorial behaviour into sandy soils in deep zones of large, periodically flooded subterranean systems.

Natural History (Re)Prints is a online series of historical monographs on natural history. This volume brings together practically all the technical and scientific articles on the control of locusts in Sardinia published between 1900 and 1949, as well as a few later works closely linked to the earlier papers. In addition to the bibliographical collection, the volume contains an introduction and two unpublished reports. Apart from a single case which is extremely significant, no regulations, laws, bulletins, financial reports or other "official" material published in large quantities by the bureaucracy of the time are included

Geologically Sardinia is a raft which, for just under thirty million years, has been crossing the western Mediterranean, swaying like a pendulum from the Iberian to the Italian Peninsula. An island so large and distant from the other lands, except for its "sister" Corsica, has inevitably developed an autochthonous flora and fauna over such a long period of time. Organisms from other Mediterranean regions have added to this original contingent. These new arrivals were not randomly distributed over time but grouped into at least three great waves. The oldest two correspond with the Messinian salinity crisis about 7 million years ago and with the ice age, when, in both periods, Sardinia was linked to or near other lands due to a fall in sea level. The third, still in progress, is linked to human activity. Man has travelled since ancient times and for many centuries introduced allochthonous species to Sardinia which radically modified the native flora and fauna, but always at a very slow and almost unnoticeable rate. The use of sailing or rowing boats, with their low speeds, hindered the transport of living organisms from one place to another. The use of the steam boat, introduced around 1840 but widely diffuse around 1870-1880, opened the doors to more frequent arrivals and also to organisms from the American Continent. This technical innovation had an influence over the whole world economy, with its well-known grain crisis, and coincided in Sardinia with the arrival of Roman dairymen, producers of pecorino cheese and the beginning of the expansion of sheep farming which would continue uninterrupted until the present day. In this period of sudden social and environmental change, an insect was introduced which would turn out to be probably the most economically devastating agricultural pest in Europe: the Grape Phylloxera. The vineyard and wine business collapsed first in France then in Italy. The Phylloxera arrived in Sardinia in 1883 and wine production crashed a very short time later and only resumed after the distribution of American vine rootstock at the beginning of the 20th Century. From then, vine cultivation in Europe was modified with the essential use of this rootstock. Since then methods of transport have increased enormously in number and speed. The number of allochthonous and invasive species has increased proportionally: some of them along with exotic plants which are cultivated on the island, others following man in his activities. Often these new pests attack and destroy ornamental plants which have become part of the Sardinian landscape, causing it to change; just as often their presence requires methods of pest management which are different from the traditional methods on specific crops; finally in at least one case (the Asian tiger mosquito) they pose a threat to our health.