Donato Antonio Grasso

• PhD
• Professor (Full) at University of Parma

Wasps of the family Cynipidae are known to induce galls of a species-specific morphology, which during senescence provide a refuge for secondary insect fauna, especially ants. Here, we studied for the first time the colonization of galls of Aphelonyx cerricola by two ant species, Colobopsis truncata and Crematogaster scutellaris. Field sampling acr...

Vineyard mealybugs (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) are economic pests in vineyards, demanding integrated control strategies. Several ant species can facilitate mealybug infestation by protecting them from natural enemies in a mutualistic relationship known as trophobiosis. In the frame of an ant management system, the provision of sugary liquid has pro...

Human-driven changes in land cover and use can significantly impact species ants community structures, often leading to a decline in taxonomic diversity or species homogenization. Ant morphology, used as a proxy for ecological function, offers a valuable framework for understanding the effects of anthropogenic disturbances on ant diversity. This st...

The existence of different male morphologies within a single species is associated with alternative mating tactics across different animal groups, offering textbook examples of evolutionary biology. The European stag beetle Lucanus cervus is a flagship species which has long fascinated naturalists for its charismatic appearance and behavior, with m...

Gall formation in plants often imposes physiological costs from which secondary colonizers may benefit. Oak galls induced by Andricus wasps are later colonized by arboreal-nesting ants that may provide a service to the plant in an-thropogenic environments. Trees in these environments frequently lack appropriate structures or deadwood to host arbore...

Ants are ubiquitous and eusocial insects that exhibit frequent physical contact among colony members, thereby increasing their susceptibility to diseases. Some species are often found in beehives and in their surroundings, where they exploit the food resources of honey bees. This intricate relationship may facilitate the interspecific transmission...

Ants are ubiquitous insects that commonly coexist with honey bees in shared environments. The constant interactions between these species can facilitate the transmission of pathogens from honey bees to ants. If ants prove to be efficient carriers of pathogens, the situation may be exacerbated by spillback events. This systematic review gathers and...

Recently, various philosophers and ethologists have argued or hypothesised that, in addition to humans, there are also non-human animals that are capable of following rules and implementing normative behaviours. The investigation of animal normativity until now, however, has been almost exclusively focused on mammals and, in particular, non-human p...

In this work, we identified the trail pheromone of the ant Crematogaster scutellaris. We combined gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis of extracts from the hind tibia, the location of the respective glands, with automated trail following assays. The study found tridecan-2-ol to be the strongest discriminator between hind tibia and other bo...

Until recently, Hypoponera ergatandria was commonly misidentified as H. punctatissima, both of which are widespread tramp ant species. Today, H. ergatandria has been recorded in eleven European countries, while most existing H. punctatissima records are doubtful. Its geographic origins, like in the case of H. punctatissima, remain unclear. Here, we...

The interspecific transmission of pathogens can occur frequently in the environment. Among wild bees, the main spillover cases are caused by pathogens associated with Apis mellifera, whose colonies can act as reservoirs. Due to the limited availability of data in Italy, it is challenging to accurately assess the impact and implications of this phen...

Due to particular vulnerabilities and environmental constraints, Alpine faunas are exposed to significant threats from climate change. However, baseline diversity and distribution data to monitor the trends of key arthropod groups are often scarce. Ants are highly diversified and key ecological actors across terrestrial ecosystems, including mounta...

Mutualistic associations between ants and honeydew-producing hemipterans have a great ecological and evolutionary significance across terrestrial habitats but can also cause pest outbreaks in agroecosystems. At the same time, ants are often effective predators of several agricultural pests, can improve soil quality, and can control some plant patho...

Mutualism between ants and honeydew-producing hemipterans is a highly successful evolutionary innovation that attains the status of ecological keystone across many terrestrial ecosystems, involving a multitude of actors through direct or cascading effects. In these relationships, ants often protect their hemipteran partners against their arthropod...

The brown marmorated stink bug Halyomorpha halys is an Asian species that has become a major agricultural pest in North America and Europe. Ants from the genus Crematogaster are predators of H. halys nymphs in Asia, as well as in the Mediterranean, where known native predators are still few. At the same time, ants usually do not harm H. halys eggs,...

Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) play a relevant ecological role across terrestrial ecosystems. Recent studies suggest that the presence of ants in crops could lead to a decrease in the populations of insect pests, but how these actions can vary along the different trophic levels is not well known. The southern green stink bug, Nezara viridula (L.) (...

The European stag beetle, Lucanus cervus , is the largest saproxylic beetle and a flagship species whose populations should be monitored according to the EU Habitats Directive. Different studies have addressed its abundance and phenology, its relationship with deadwood, or the allometry of males related to different reproductive strategies. While m...

Many ants and hemipterans are bound by a mutualistic relationship (trophobiosis) which represents an ecological keystone: ants receive food (honeydew) providing different kinds of protection. Partner protection against arthropod natural enemies is considered to be frequent and to interfere with biological control strategies of hemipteran pests. We...

Simple Summary The Alps are undergoing important environmental alterations. These can modify the characteristics of the habitats where several wildlife species persist, leading to a reshuffle of local assemblages (i.e., the ensemble of species in a given habitat). We investigated these aspects in alpine small rodents, monitoring their assemblage af...

1. Vineyards are economically valuable agroecosystems that have spread to all continents. As such, sustainable management of their pests is an important goal. Mealybugs are serious pests of vines with Planococcus ficus (VMB) being the most problematic worldwide. Mealybugs are attended by different ant species, whose trophobiotic relationship is oft...

Simple Summary Ants are widespread across terrestrial ecosystems, including agroecosystems, where they take part in several important processes. They often can act as predators of a wide range of insect pests in agricultural fields, which should be considered by management programs, and can sometimes be actively exploited to promote sustainable bio...

We investigated the diversity of ant assemblages visiting pear trees in Italy by comparing two orchards from a northern region with continental climate (Emilia-Romagna) and a southern region with Mediterranean climate (Sicily). Overall we identified 20 ant species belonging to 10 genera and 3 subfamilies. The ant communities of the two sites look s...

Galls are neoformed structures induced on the tissues of a host plant by different organisms, mostly insects. Apart from the inducers, galls can also provide shelter to several different arthropods, referred to as secondary occupants. In certain types of galls, ants are among the prevalent secondary colonizers. This study focuses on oak galls induc...

Soil-dropping is a rarely observed interference behavior so far only documented for six phylogenetically very diverse ant species. Usually, it is employed against rival ant colonies, and may aim to plug their nest entrances to stop their foraging activities. Here, we provide the first testimony of the use of soil dropping by Tetramorium ants agains...

Due to their ubiquity and their nature as generalist predators, ants have long been used as biological control agents in forest and agricultural systems. Several exotic ambrosia beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae, Platypodinae) are considered emerging widespread pests of various trees and shrubs growing in forests, nurseries, orchards,...

The ecological success of social Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps) depends on the division of labour between the queen and workers. Each caste exhibits highly specialized morphology, behaviour, and life‐history traits, such as lifespan and fecundity. Despite strong defences against alien intruders, insect societies are vulnerable to social parasites,...

It is one of the few university textbooks written entirely by Italian authors, who have often dealt with examples of research carried out in Italy. It is also intended for a wider audience. For further details, including the index: Si tratta di uno dei pochi libri di testo universitari, ma destinato anche a un pubblico più vasto, scritto interame...

The West-Palaearctic Colobopsis ant populations have long been considered a single species (Colobopsis truncata). We studied the diversity of this species by employing a multidisciplinary approach and combining data from our surveys, museum and private collections, and citizen science platforms. As a result, we have revealed the existence of a seco...

Entomata - la Newsletter della Società Entomologica Italiana: http://www.societaentomologicaitaliana.it/images/entomata/entomata_17_6.pdf

1. We studied the interactions involving oak acorns and associated arthropods focus-ing on the role of the introduced Quercus rubra in Italy. 2. We conducted our study in areas where native oaks coexist with Q. rubra. We carried out a survey on the arthropods inhabiting fallen acorns and a colonisation experiment. Furthermore, we conducted laborat...

Simple Summary The black soldier fly Hermetia illucens is a widespread species of fly of American origins, which is increasingly used to develop sustainable waste recycling processes as it is able to develop by consuming a wide variety of wastes as food, while both its body and the residuals of its feeding activity can be re-used in a variety of pr...

Actively rolling away is a very rare escape strategy in the animal kingdom, which to date has only been documented in a few arthropod and one vertebrate species. One of these arthropods is a West-Palearctic ant, Myrmecina graminicola, which has very recently been demonstrated to actively curb into a ball-like shape rolling away upon disturbance, an...

Background Investigations of evolution knowledge and acceptance and their relation are central to evolution education research. Ambiguous results in this field of study demonstrate a variety of measuring issues, for instance differently theorized constructs, or a lack of standardized methods, especially for cross-country comparisons. In particular,...

We conducted a survey on the Alpine fauna of one of the largest Natural Park of the Italian Alps (Stelvio National Park) in the framework of a broad ecological monitoring of Alpine biodiversity. A two-years standardized sampling employing pitfall traps along a 1200 m altitudinal gradient led to the discovery of the inquiline social parasite ants My...

The ecological success of social Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps) depends on the division of labour between the queen and workers. Each caste is highly specialized in their respective function in morphology, behaviour and life history traits, such as lifespan and fecundity. Despite strong defences against alien intruders, insect societies are vulner...

Agroecosystems have gained a dominant positionon worldwide land-usage, and therefore preserving their biodiversity is crucial for environmental sustainability. Ants are one of the most widespread groups of terrestrial arthropods, and,thanks to their significant diversification,they are considered as a good proxy group for bio-diversity monitoring,...

In recent years, Halyomorpha halys (Stål) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae, Cappaeini) has become an invasive pest in North America and Europe, where it caused extensive damage to agriculture, resulting in great economic losses. Evaluating the potential of native predators in the invaded areas, ants might represent good candidates thanks to their biology,...

Simple Summary Galls represent an amazing microcosm which contains a variety of multiple interactions among different actors, and therefore, offers the opportunity to observe and investigate phenomena belonging to different areas of biology: from the development process, connected to the interaction between the galligenous agent and the host plant,...

Simple Summary Public involvement in biodiversity research in the form of Citizen Science is a powerful tool to improve our understanding of the natural world, and it is especially suitable for the study of heavily populated environments. Ants’ ubiquity and diversity, their role as ecological bioindicators, and the fact that most species can easily...

Ergatandromorphism is the result of an aberrant development in which part of the body of a social insect shows the traits of the worker caste, while the other resembles a male. It is considered a specific case of gynandromorphism. Specimens with these characteristics have rarely been collected in different ant lineages across the world. Here, we pr...

For animals facing dangers, the best option to optimize costs and benefits of defence sometimes may be avoidance. Here we report the discovery of a peculiar strategy adopted by Myrmecina graminicola, a cryptic ant living in forest floor. Experiments showed that when disturbed these ants respond with immobility. However, upon perceiving disturbance...

Knowledge of the role of ants in many agroecosystems is relatively scarce, and in temperate regions the possibility to exploit ants as biocontrol agents for crop protection is still largely unexplored. Drawing inspiration from mutualistic ant–plant relationships mediated by extrafloral nectaries (EFNs), we tested the use of artificial nectaries (AN...

Galls are neoformed structures on host plant tissues caused by the attack of insects or other organisms. They support different communities of specialized parasitic insects (the gall inducers), and can also provide refuge to other insects, such as moths, beetles and ants, referred to as secondary occupants. This study focuses on galls induced by th...

Riassunto. Il monitoraggio dei micromammiferi, ottimi bioindicatori delle biocenosi terrestri, può essere rilevante per valutare l'effetto del clima sugli ecosistemi, specialmente in aree, come le Alpi, sensibili al cambiamento climatico. In tale contesto, nell'estate/autunno del 2016, è stato svolto uno studio pilota nelle Alpi Centrali, basato s...

The moment-to-moment tasks performed by an individual can change in response to a shift of internal, e.g. body size or age, and external conditions, e.g. the number of workers currently engaged in another task. For this reason, the term “task allocation” is replacing the earlier concept of “division of labor” for describing an invariable associatio...

It has been known for centuries that floral and extra-floral nectar secreted by plants attracts and rewards animals. Extra-floral nectar is involved in so-called indirect defense by attracting animals (generally ants) that prey on herbivores, or by discouraging herbivores from feeding on the plant. Floral nectar is presented inside the flower close...

The relationship between levels of dominance and species richness is highly contentious, especially in ant communities. The dominance‐impoverishment rule states that high levels of dominance only occur in species‐poor communities, but there appear to be many cases of high levels of dominance in highly diverse communities. The extent to which domina...

Cutaneous ulcers tend to become chronic and have a profound impact on quality of life. These wounds may become infected and lead to greater morbidity and even mortality. In the past, larvae (ie, maggots) of certain common flies (Lucilia sericata and Lucilia cuprina) were considered useful in ulcer management because they only remove necrotic tissue...

Introduction –Small mammals play a relevant role in the Alpine terrestrial biocenosis. Due to their short life cycle and high growing rate, they can therefore track the rapid habitat shifts resulting from anthropic impacts or fast occurring global climate change, and eventually they are considered good environmental bioindicators. The presence of s...

I micromammiferi hanno un ruolo rilevante nelle biocenosi terrestri e sono ottimi bioindicatori. La loro presenza in un territorio può fornire utili indicazioni sulle modificazioni ambientali e climatiche. Di conseguenza il monitoraggio dei micromammiferi sulle Alpi, un ambiente sensibile al cambiamento climatico per il ripido gradiente altitudinal...

In response to herbivory by insects, various plants produce volatiles that attract enemies of the herbivores. Although ants are important components of natural and agro-ecosystems, the importance of herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs) as cues for ants for finding food sources have received little attention. We investigated responses of the an...

The pest Halyomorpha halys is a recent example of severe worldwide biological invasion. In Italy, after the first detection in 2012, it has rapidly spread and economic damage has already been reported in commercial fruit orchards, eliciting enormous concern for Italian agricultural production. As a long-term solution, biological control investigati...

Small mammals are excellent bioindicators to track habitat shifts affected by fast-occurring climate change. Thus, small mammals monitoring in the Alps, that for the steep elevation gradient are particularly sensitive to climate change, can provide important indications on alpine environment alterations. We performed a capture/mark/recapture pilot...

What forces structure ecological assemblages? A key limitation to general insights about assemblage structure is the availability of data that are collected at a small spatial grain (local assemblages) and a large spatial extent (global coverage). Here, we present published and unpublished data from 51,388 ant abundance and occurrence records of mo...

Several species of parasitoid wasps have been used to control aphids in the field in order to improve the environmental sustainability of the current agricultural practices. Behavioural and physiological defences have been reported in aphids and the role of symbiotic bacteria, such as Hamiltonella defensa, Serratia symbiotica and Regiella insectico...

Many studies have focused on the impacts of climate change on biological assemblages, yet little is known about how climate interacts with other major anthropogenic influences on biodiversity, such as habitat disturbance. Using a unique global database of 1128 local ant assemblages, we examined whether climate mediates the effects of habitat distur...

During recent years, the positive role of ants as biological control agents in agro-ecosystems has gained growing interest. We investigated the predatory relationship between Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) and the ant Tapinoma nigerrimum (Nylander), commonly widespread in the Mediterranean area. Additionally we investigated some bio-ethological asp...

Plant-ant interactions are generally considered as mutualism, with both parties gaining benefits from the association. It has recently emerged that some of these mutualistic associations have however evolved towards other form of relationships, and in particular that plants may manipulate their partner ants to make reciprocation more beneficial, th...

Interspecific competition is one of the main factor shaping ant community structure. The "dominance-discovery trade-off", an inverse relationship between interference and exploitative competitive ability, is thought to be a fundamental mechanism facilitating coexistence of ants. Despite its widely acceptance in literature, this trade-off appears to...

Species may reduce competitive interactions by temporal separation in activity times. Similarly to other animals, ants also partition their niches by being active during specific periods of the year or at specific times of the day. However, if several species share the same temporal niches, interspecific competition may give rise to behavioural dom...

Citizen science can generate data that would not exist otherwise while increasing public scientific literacy. However, the quality and use of citizen science data have been criticized in the recent ecological literature. We need an approach that advances eco-evolutionary understanding, achieves education goals and incorporates public participation...

Different aspects of the foraging strategies of two harvester ant species, Messor wasmanni and M. minor, were investigated in a Mediterranean dry grassland area. Baits were used to evaluate the existence of a trade-off between resource discovery and domination as well as the effect of three variables (air temperature, relative humidity and distance...

À l'occasion de la Journée Mondiale des Sols, le Centre commun de recherche (JRC), service scientifique de la Commission européenne, publie la version française de sa cartographie unique des sols européens. L'atlas européen de la biodiversité des sols est un outil d'aide à la décision visant à protéger les sols, ressource essentielle aux cycles de...

À l'occasion de la Journée Mondiale des Sols, le Centre commun de recherche (JRC), service scientifique de la Commission européenne, publie la version française de sa cartographie unique des sols européens. L'atlas européen de la biodiversité des sols est un outil d'aide à la décision visant à protéger les sols, ressource essentielle aux cycles de...

1. Diet composition of two syntopic species of Messor seed-harvester ants (M. wasmanni Krausse and M. minor André) was evaluated during different periods over the year (May, July, October), by analysing food type (plant parts and species) and food size (weight, length, width). Morphological traits of foragers (head width and femur length) considere...