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Halyomorpha halys (Stål, 1855), the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), is an invasive species that has become a key agricultural pest in its invaded range. Commercial traps available for BMSB monitoring rely on male produced aggregation pheromones as lure, with two possible shortcomings: trap spillover and low detection precision. In this study, we assessed if vibrational signals can increase the attractiveness of pheromone traps by testing the optimized vibration-based lure (Female Song 2, FS2) associated with a specifically designed trap (i.e., the vibrotrap). We evaluated the efficacy of this bimodal trap (i.e., pheromones + vibrations) on females, males and nymphs in controlled conditions (greenhouse) and in the field, in two sites at the margin of two commercial vineyards. In the field, bimodal vibrotraps were compared to three unimodal (i.e., only pheromone) trap types. Both experiments showed that the vibrotrap is highly attractive for BMSB, and the optimized FS2 signal significantly improved its effectiveness. Even though FS2 was selected to target males, the number of trapped females increased as well. Overall, the presented findings show a feasible improvement to future commercial BMSB traps through the synergic use of semiophysicals and semiochemicals. Further research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of vibrotraps for both early detection and mass trapping.

Simple Summary The management of invasive alien species is a very challenging task. For the brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha halys), classical biological control has been identified as the most suitable method to sustainably reduce its populations in the long-term. Among its natural enemies, two species were identified as the most promising candidates for biocontrol, Trissolcus japonicus and Trissolcus mitsukurii. Populations of these two species have recently been detected in Europe and to assess their distribution, a large-scale study was performed. Combining several monitoring methods, in four months (May–September 2019), a wide area covering northern Italy and parts of Switzerland was surveyed. The results showed that both species have spread into all types of habitats where H. halys is present and the parasitization of native species was rarely observed. Among native species, Anastatus bifasciatus was the predominant parasitoid of H. halys. This study supported the development of the first release program of Tr. japonicus in Europe. Abstract The brown marmorated stink bug Halyomorpha halys is an invasive agricultural pest with a worldwide distribution. Classical biological control has been identified as the most promising method to reduce the populations of H. halys. Adventive populations of two candidates for releases, Trissolcus japonicus and Trissolcus mitsukurii, have recently been detected in Europe. To assess their distribution and abundance, a large-scale survey was performed. From May to September 2019, a wide area covering northern Italy and parts of Switzerland was surveyed, highlighting the expanding distribution of both Tr. japonicus and Tr. mitsukurii. Within four years after their first detection in Europe, both species have rapidly spread into all types of habitats where H. halys is present, showing a wide distribution and continuous expansion. Both exotic Trissolcus showed high levels of parasitism rate towards H. halys, while parasitization of non-target species was a rare event. The generalist Anastatus bifasciatus was the predominant native parasitoid of H. halys, while the emergence of native scelionids from H. halys eggs was rarely observed. The presence of the hyperparasitoid Acroclisoides sinicus was also recorded. This study provided fundamental data that supported the development of the first inoculative release program of Tr. japonicus in Europe.

Halyomorpha halys (St&aring, l) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) is an invasive alien species and a key agricultural pest. Its native parasitoids (Trissolcus japonicus Ashmead and Tr. mitsukurii Ashmead) have been registered in several countries where H. halys brought dramatic economic losses and where biological control is considered to be the most effective long-term solution. By searching for stink bug egg masses and exposing sentinel egg masses, we monitored the distribution of native and exotic egg parasitoids in Trentino-Alto Adige (Italy), an area where both the host and parasitoids are in expansion. We recorded ten pentatomids, seven parasitoid species, with the first report of Tr. japonicus in this area and a hyperparasitoid. In the assemblage, Anastatus bifasciatus (Geoffroy) and Tr. mitsukurii were the dominant parasitoids, with a different distribution in terms of context and host plants. Sycamore was the host plant where the highest number of naturally laid parasitized egg masses (26%) were recorded. Trissolcus mitsukurii showed the highest parasitism rate, and was often found in apple orchards. The emergence of exotic parasitoids showed a temporal delay compared to native ones. Sequence analysis of 823 bp of the CO1 mitochondrial gene revealed that the recovered Tr. japonicus and Tr. mitsukurii harbored one single haplotype each. These haplotypes were previously found in 2018 in Northern Italy. While sentinel egg masses proved to be very effective in tracking the arrival of exotic Trissolcus species, the collection of stink bug egg masses provided fundamental data on the plant host species. The results lend strong support to the adaptation of exotic Trissolcus species to the environmental conditions of the range of introduction, providing new information on plant host-associations, fundamental for the development of biological control programs.

Forests are storing vast amounts of carbon and every tree will at some point become part of the soil, if not harvested or washed into the sea. The degradation of trees is a long-term process as the structural compounds of wood are extremely difficult to break down. A complex community of invertebrates, fungi and micro-organisms is needed to decompose the wood and beetles that penetrate the bark are critical to the initiation of this process, also because they directly inoculate the wood with a characteristic community of fungi and bacteria. A particular type of wood decay are trunk cavities with wood mould in living trees. Saproxylic insects play an important role also in this process. In managed forests the majority of wood is harvested and very little is left to become dead wood and to finally be incorporated into the soil. The paucity of dead wood has important implications for forest biodiversity and for soil organic matter.

Ancient trees present structural and functional characteristics fundamental for sustaining complex and unique assemblages of species. They are a resource globally threatened by both intensive land uses and lack of recruitment. Their disappearance would involve not only the loss of majestic organisms with high intrinsic value, but may also result in the disappearance of rare and endangered species. Italy is currently implementing a new list of noteworthy ancient trees (i.e. monumental trees) and the preliminary results of this new inventory have been analysed as a case study of a national initiative. The provisional list included 950 complete records, corresponding to 65 genera and 118 species. The most abundant species was Quercus pubescens Willd while the most common genera were Quercus, Larix, Cedrus, Fagus and Platanus. Age and size were the most used criteria for inclusion of trees in the census. The fundamental novelty of the new inventory is that it is based on a set of well-defined criteria of monumentality and that it clearly recognised the ecological value of ancient trees. Preserving a tree for its ecological role requires a profound cultural shift. The value of microhabitats, structures that have historically been considered defects, should be recognised and managed accordingly. Ancient trees are often part of disappearing cultural landscapes: to preserve the richness and diversity of these habitats, new policies and regulations are needed. The preservation of landscapes, where there is still a high density of ancient trees, should be a priority for all European countries in order to conserve their unique associated fauna and for their irreplaceable functional value for biodiversity conservation.

International audience; Aim: The tinder fungus Fomes fomentarius is a pivotal wood decomposer in European beech Fagus sylvatica forests. The fungus, however, has regionally declined due to centuries of logging. To unravel biogeographical drivers of arthropod communities associated with this fungus, we investigated how space, climate and habitat amount structure alpha and beta diversity of arthropod communities in fruitbodies of F. fomentarius. Location: Temperate zone of Europe. Taxon: Arthropods. Methods: We reared arthropods from fruitbodies sampled from 61 sites throughout the range of European beech and identified 13 orders taxonomically or by metabarcoding. We estimated the total number of species occurring in fruitbodies of F. fomentarius in European beech forests using the Chao2 estimator and determined the relative importance of space, climate and habitat amount by hierarchical partitioning for alpha diversity and generalized dissimilarity models for beta diversity. A subset of fungi samples was sequenced for identification of the fungus' genetic structure. Results: The total number of arthropod species occurring in fruitbodies of F. fomentarius across European beech forests was estimated to be 600. Alpha diversity increased with increasing fruitbody biomass; it decreased with increasing longitude, temperature and latitude. Beta diversity was mainly composed by turnover. Patterns of beta diversity were only weakly linked to space and the overall explanatory power was low. We could distinguish two genotypes of F. fomentarius, which showed no spatial structuring. Main conclusion: Fomes fomentarius hosts a large number of arthropods in European beech forests. The low biogeographical and climatic structure of the communities suggests that fruitbodies represent a habitat that offers similar conditions across large gradients of climate and space, but are characterized by high local variability in community composition and colonized by species with high dispersal ability. For European beech forests, retention of trees with F. fomentarius and promoting its recolonization where it had declined seems a promising conservation strategy.

“BugMap” is a citizen science mobile application that provides a platform for amateur and expert scientists to report sightings of two invasive insect pests, the tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus Skuse (Diptera: Culicidae) and the brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys Stål (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae). The latter is a notorious pest of fruit trees, vegetables, ornamentals, and row crops, inflicting severe agricultural and ecological disturbances in invaded areas. Our approach consists of coupling traditional monitoring with citizen science to uncover H. halys invasion in Trentino. The project was initiated in 2016 and the first results were reported in 2018. Here, we revisit our initiative four years after its adoption and unravel new information related to the invader dispersal and overwintering capacity. We found that our previous model predicted the current distribution of H. halys in Trentino with an accuracy of 72.5%. A new MaxEnt model was generated by pooling all reports received so far, providing a clearer perspective on areas at risk of stink bug establishment in this north Italian region. The information herein presented is of immediate importance for enhancing monitoring strategies of this pest and for refining its integrated management tactics.

One of the objectives of forest conservation is the set aside of unharvested areas. However, the fragmentation and lack of connectivity of protected areas make the integration of conservation measures in productive forests essential. Strategies to integrate conservation of saproxylic biodiversity in forest management have been developed, but often considering only specific aspects or remaining preliminary otherwise. As the impact of climate change and anthropogenic stresses increases, the development and the synthesis of this approach is crucial. We reviewed the key literature on forest management for biodiversity conservation, integrating forest science perspective to provide a practical management framework. Our goal is to present a management framework that could contribute to the effective preservation of forest insect biodiversity at the landscape scale, without high economic efforts, and addressing the conflicts that still jeopardize sustainable forest management. The results of our review support the creation of micro-reserves inside productive forests, to support large reserves in landscape conservation strategies. Micro-reserves increase the resilience of forest ecosystems to anthropogenic disturbances, through the development of a heterogeneous structure, maximizing microhabitat availability. Modeling forest management and harvest on local natural disturbance would extend the benefits of spatio-temporal heterogeneity in productive forests. Variable retention harvest systems, applied at the landscape scale, are a feasible and adaptable strategy to preserve and increase biodiversity, safeguarding structural legacies such as senescent trees and deadwood inside the productive matrix. The operational shift, from the stand to the forest landscape, is fundamental to extend the benefits of conservation measures. The Forest Biodiversity Artery, composed by several micro-reserves or ilots de senescence, connected by corridors of habitat trees and deadwood, constitutes a network that would deliver old-growth forests attributes to the productive matrix. This planning instrument would support forest connectivity, and socioeconomic constraints.

The cavities that develop in veteran trees represent a key microhabitat for forest biodiversity and especially for secondary cavity nesters that rely on this resource for shelter. Since the availability of deadwood, veteran and hollow trees is threatened by forest management, we explored the possibility of increasing the presence of these scarce resources. To increase the abundance of dead wood-microhabitats, 113 trees of the hybrid planes (Platanus x acerifolia) were converted into new living structures, the Habitat Trees (HT). To investigate the potential of this resource on the native avian fauna, six types of cavities were designed according to the size requirements of the target bird species. The temporal evolution of the cavities and their use by birds were then studied for eight years. The artificial cavities generally did not compromise growth and stability of the trees, and the majority remained alive. These hollows offered better thermal insulation compared to traditional nest-boxes and natural cavities. Their use increased during the first three years, reaching the 80%. In the following years, the use declined (probably because of the increase of rot and displacement of the lids).This highlights the need of management to maintain their suitability through time. Our results suggest a possible cost-effective alternative use of alien tree species, which should be included in management actions to compensate the shortage of hollow trees in managed forests.

In this study we analyzed the inter-specific relationships in assemblages of syrphids at a site in northern Italy in order to determine whether there are patterns in diurnal co-occurrence. We adopted a null model approach and calculated two co-occurrence metrics, the C-score and variance ratio (V-ratio), both for the total catch and of the morning (8:00-13:00) and afternoon (13:00-18:00) catches separately, and for males and females. We recorded discordant species richness, abundance and co-occurrence patterns in the samples collected. Higher species richness and abundance were recorded in the morning, when the assemblage had an aggregated structure, which agrees with previous findings on communities of invertebrate primary consumers. A segregated pattern of co-occurrence was recorded in the afternoon, when fewer species and individuals were collected. The pattern recorded is likely to be caused by a number of factors, such as a greater availability of food in the morning, prevalence of hot and dry conditions in the early afternoon, which are unfavourable for hoverflies, and possibly competition with other pollinators. Our results indicate that restricting community studies to a particular time of day will result in certain species and/or species interactions not being recorded.

Up to now, global conservation priorities are far from incorporating megadiverse invertebrate taxa. Thus, an important emerging field in biological conservation is how we might manage landscape to preserve insects. In this study, we analyze the efficacy of Italian reserve network for protecting multiple saproxylic beetles, considering both nationally designated areas and Natura 2000 sites. We selected 150 species inhabiting the Italian territory from the European Red List for saproxylic beetles, on the basis of distribution data availability. For each species, a vulnerability score was assigned according to their Red List status, and the species' distributions data were used to perform an irreplaceability analysis. Our analyses show that conservation targets based on geographic range extent are achieved for only 7% of the considered species. We find that 13 species are not represented in any protected area: among these, two click beetle species (Elateridae) are listed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature threatened categories (i.e. Ampedus quadrisignatus EN and Ampedus brunnicornis VU). Our analyses on protected area effectiveness for the conservation of saproxylic beetles showed that nationally designated protected areas are more irreplaceable than a random selection of cells. Surprisingly, the addition of Natura 2000 sites did not improve the species representation. Moreover, these reserves include sites that are not more irreplaceable than a random selection of cells. We identify some currently unprotected areas that protection could prevent from future extinctions and ensure a favorable conservation status of saproxylic beetles. In particular, we find an important stronghold for beetle conservation, which obtained a high irreplaceability score, in the Adige river basin. We recommend the designation of new reserves in this area to complement the existing network and to help guarantee invertebrate saproxylic fauna protection.

Developing protocols for threatened invertebrates is often challenging, because they are not only rare but also elusive. This is the case with the stag beetle (Lucanus cervus), a protected and flagship species for the saproxylic beetle fauna in Europe. We applied a standard transect walk at a European scale (8 countries, 29 transects) to test its practicability and reliability as survey design. A total of 533 sightings were recorded throughout the sampling period, but detection probability changed as the season progressed. Considering the observed activity pattern, occupancy models showed that a short period of three consecutive weeks, between the middle of June and the first week of July, resulted in a high probability of detection (P > 0.7). As time of the peak of activity varies from year to year and between sites, we propose to extend the sampling period to five weekly surveys. Detailed information on the transect characteristics and the optimal time for surveying were analysed. The data indicate that a weekly transect at dusk provides a reliable method for monitoring this species throughout its distributional range. No correlation was found between latitude, longitude and phenology of sightings, however. However, a standard method such as the one presented, allows broadening the scale of monitoring studies, provinding data to evaluate the efficacy of conservation measures. © 2016 The Royal Entomological Society

The aim of paper is to provide an overview of options and results and how these can be scaled up and transferred to other forests. The adaptability of implementations tested, is also discussed. ManFor C.BD suggests the opportunity of managing forests formerly devoted mainly to wood production balancing different goals such as: i) the productive functions; ii) the maintenance or development of the inherent carbon sequestration and stock ability (i.e, the mitigation function); iii) the maintenance and development of structural, compositional and functional biodiversity at the different operational scales.

Global change imposes rapid assessments to obtain reliable and updated distribution data to implement conservation measures. This task is undoubtedly unaffordable for numerous invertebrate species, both in terms of time and economic resources, because they are often elusive, detectable life stages are present for a restricted time and ecological data are scarce. Citizen science might be able to provide a large number of records and these data might facilitate the evaluation of extinction risks. Large saproxylic beetles represent an ideal group to assess the potential of citizen science to map distributions on a large scale geographic distribution. The data presented were collected during a citizen science program developed within the LIFE Project “Monitoring of Insects with Public Participation”, which used a website and a mobile app to involve citizens. We selected three pan European species protected under the Habitats Directive: Lucanus cervus , Morimus asper / funereus and Rosalia alpina , and we compared the data gathered by the citizen science project with distributional data from the official national species inventory. For all species we found a low overlap of occupied cells and the integration of the two datasets resulted in an increase in the distributional ranges of up to one third. Furthermore, taking into account the time frame of data collection, we found that the extent of occurrence obtained in 10 years of records present in the national dataset was comparable to data collected in only two years of the citizen science data project. Similar results were obtained for the estimates of spatial parameters for the IUCN Red List assessment. Our study shows the potential and the efficacy of citizen science projects as rapid tools to provide reliable distributional data for neglected species of high conservation priority.

Insects are a diverse group of terrestrial organisms, countig at least one million of species and undoubtedly the predominantportion of animal biomass, consequently representing an essentialcomponent of every terrestrial environment. They are too oftensimplistically perceived as a simple nuisance or as pests due tothe significant economic damages caused by a relatively small,but notable percentage of species. However, the ecological role ofinsects in forests is significant. Indeed, the present environmentis the result of hundreds of millions of years of co-evolutionbetween insects and plants, giving rise to the present biodiversityand complexity.

This section can be considered as the core of the project results and as an important output of its overall activities, being ManFor CBD a demonstrative project. Some of the suggestions enclosed in the chapter are derived from data produced during the project activities. Other suggestions come from observations made by the project experts during the planning and the execution of practical activities as the tree marking, the harvesting, the pre and post harvesting surveys, etc. (Balestrieri et al., 2016; Basile et al., 2016; Bombi and Gnetti, 2016; Chiavetta et al., 2016; Costa et al., 2016; D'Andrea et al., 2016; Di Salvatore et al., 2016; Fabbio et al., 2016; Frate D'Andrea et al., 2016; Giancola et al., 2016; Lombardi and Mali, 2016; D'Andrea et al., 2016; Mason et al., 2016; Picchio et al., 2016; Romano et al., 2016a, 2016b; Tonti and Marchetti, 2016; Zapponi et al., 2016) Part of the suggestions provided in this section have also been gained during the dissemination activities that have allowed the project experts to meet many people connected to the forests in various forms and at different levels, collecting several opinions and points of view.

Few researches have been carried out on wild populations of small carnivores involving animals live trapping. Problems in field data collection make spatial and reproductive dynamics of these species still not understood. This research used data about only 14 live trapped individuals, because of the quoted problems, nevertheless results showed important and preliminary considerations on this topic. In the study, genetic microsatellite methodology applied to natural weasel population produced data on kinship and dispersal patterns. All the 11 microsatellite analyzed loci were found polymorphic, with an average number of alleles per locus of 5.36 ; estimated expected heterozygosity He (0.62) is at the highest end of the range of other Mustela species. No significant deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were found (p≥ 0.05). The analysis of genetic kinship showed no full siblings and only one parent-offspring pair : so only 1.09% of the total possible pair wise comparisons (91) showed close genetic kinship. The proportion of related animals from the sampled population was 14,2%., Magrini Caterina, Cento Michele, Manzo Emiliano, Pierpaoli Massimo, Zapponi Livia, Cozzolino Roberto. Pilot study of genetic relatedness in a solitary small carnivore, the weasel: implications for kinship and dispersal. In: Ecologia mediterranea, tome 38 n°2, 2012. pp. 23-27.

International audience; Global warming and land-use change are expected to be additive threats to global diversity, to which insects contribute the highest proportion. Insects are strongly influenced by temperature but also require specific habitat resources, and thus interaction between the two factors is likely. We selected saproxylic beetles as a model group because their life cycle depends on dead wood, which is highly threatened by land use. We tested the extent to which higher temperatures compensate for the negative effects of low amounts of dead wood on saproxylic beetle species richness (Temperature–Dead wood compensation hypothesis) on both a macroclimate and a topoclimate scale (north- and south-facing slopes). We analyzed 1404 flight-interception trap catches across Europe to test for interaction effects of temperature and dead-wood amount on species richness. To experimentally test our findings from the activity trap data, we additionally reared beetles from 80 bundles of dead wood initially exposed at high and low elevations. At the topoclimate scale, we analyzed trap catches and reared beetles from dead wood exposed in 20 forest stands on south-facing and north-facing slopes in one region. On the macroscale, both temperature and dead-wood amount positively affected total and threatened species richness independently, but their interaction was significantly negative, indicating compensation. On both scales and irrespective of the method, species richness decreased with temperature decline. Our observation that increasing temperature compensates for lower amounts of dead wood has two important implications. First, managers of production forests should adapt their dead-wood enrichment strategy to site-specific temperature conditions. Second, an increase in temperature will compensate at least partially for poor habitat conditions in production forests. Such a perspective contrasts the general assumption of reinforcing impacts of global warming and habitat loss on biodiversity, but it is corroborated by recent range expansions of threatened beetle species.

Read the Feature Paper: Protected areas and insect conservation: questioning the effectiveness of Natura 2000 network for saproxylic beetles in Italy Commentaries on this Feature Paper: Institutional vertebratism hampers insect conservation generally; not just saproxylic beetle conservation; Knowledge gaps in protected area effectiveness

The role of the matrix for the functionality of residual patches and therefore for species persistence has been recently recognised. However its influence on assemblage structure and composition is still unclear. We studied the effect of both patch and matrix attributes on community assemblage structure and composition in a fragmented landscape of central Italy. We used bird assemblages as a study model. Birds were sampled in 24 wood patches and distribution patterns were analysed considering both assemblage and guild-level responses. Patch composition and structure together with landscape patterns quantified with GIS were used as explanatory variables. The assemblages appeared to be strongly influenced by the landscape context, both in terms of composition and configuration. The functional connectivity of the patches, in terms of amount of neighbouring borders between woods and hedgerows, the shape of the woods in the matrix, together with the age of the patches, expressed as tree diameter, acted as the essential determinants, and even if the assemblages presented a significant nested structure, seven out of 40 species showed an idiosyncratic distribution. The study of the association between functional guilds and environmental parameters highlighted the influence of ecological constraints on the occurrence of unexpected presences and absences, suggesting the ability of some species to perceive and exploit matrix habitats. The matrix holds the capability to at least mitigate the effects of isolation and habitat loss, and the semi-natural elements of the mosaic may represent a biodiversity reservoir in an otherwise deprived landscape.

The study of the effect of habitat fragmentation on species that inhabit residual patches requires the investigation of the relationship existing between species distribution and landscape components. To understand which components of landscape mosaics are more influential for species’ persistence, we compared the distribution of two arboreal rodents proved to be sensitive to habitat fragmentation, the hazel dormouse Muscardinus avellanarius and the red squirrel Sciurus vulgaris. Their occurrence in residual oak woods in central Italy was studied with nest-boxes and hair-tubes, developing a new method for hair analysis. Their distributions were analysed considering patch, matrix composition and configuration, and landscape vegetation variables. The two species showed a different degree of plasticity, with the squirrel being significantly more specialised at the landscape scale. The comparison of the two distribution patterns highlighted the influence of different ecological constraints and the existence of different strategies to cope with fragmentation. Patch size and patch attributes were generally weaker determinants of occurrence, compared to landscape metrics. The squirrel presence was significantly influenced by the presence of shared perimeter between hedgerows and woods and by the lack of isolation of the residual patches, suggesting the use of several fragments to compensate the low habitat quality. Conversely the hazel dormouse seemed to be more affected by the internal management of the woods, and in particular by the mean DBH. Our results highlight how the recognition of the extrinsic constraints and the influence of multi-scale habitat selection may help guiding land use management, to ensure species conservation in profoundly exploited landscapes.

This paper reports the findings of a study on the spacing pattern of a population of weaselsMustela nivalis Linnaeus, 1758 in central Italy. We describe this pattern at spatial and habitat level, meant as a set of vegetational and environmental features. The study area is a typical agricultural landscape, consisting of highly fragmented natural habitat modified by thousands of years of human presence and work. The results indicate that individual home ranges vary greatly from non breeding to breeding season: during spring and summer, weasels increase their movements and the number of tracts they cross, which results in home range areas up to 10 times larger. Moreover this study demonstrates a strong preference of weasels for habitats formed by natural residual edges between fields and meadows. The shapes of the individual home ranges follow these edges, producing a typical linear spatial home range pattern.