History of insect parasitism in Italy

Abstract: The early Italian “entomologists” Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605), Francesco Redi (1626–1698) and Marcello Malpighi (1628–1694) played a very important role in the development of entomology, and all three depicted or wrote about insect parasitoids. However, they were not able to unravel the secret of insect parasitism. Antonio Vallisnieri (1661–1730) is credited for the first correct interpretation of insect parasitism in Italy. Usually, the year 1706 is incorrectly mentioned in the current literature as the year of the discovery of insect parasitism in Italy. During the preparation of this paper, we first found a publication by Vallisnieri dated 2 January 1700, which is almost completely devoted to entomophagous insects of different orders. We then found that this 1700 publication was similar to a book by Vallisnieri with the same title and published in 1696. In this work, Vallisnieri corrects the misinterpretations by Aldrovandi [De Anim. Insect. Libri Septem, 1602, 707 p] and Redi [Esperienze Intorno alla Generazione degl’Insetti, 1668, 228 p] who failed to recognize that the silky cocoons on the larvae of cabbage butterflies (Pieris spp.) were the result of earlier parasitism by the parasitoid Cotesia glomerata (L.). Thus, the year of the first correct interpretation of insect parasitism in Italy has to be put at 1696, which predates earlier statements by 10 years. As far as we understand from Vallisnieri’s (1696) descriptions, he had not yet observed actual egg laying by a parasitoid in 1696. Another important event in the history of insect parasitism in Italy summarized in this paper is the discovery of the peculiar polyembryonic development shown by some chalcidoid Hymenoptera, by Floriano Caldani (1772–1836) and, above all, Filippo Silvestri (1873–1949). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]