Marino Quaranta

Council for Agricultural Research and Agricultural Economy Analysis | CREA · Research Centre for Agriculture and Environment (Bologna) (CREA-AA)

Wild bee communities of Sardinia and Corsica, two Mediterranean islands, have been relatively understudied. In this article, Lasioglossum inexpectatum sp. nov., which is known exclusively in Sardinia and Corsica, is described, emphasizing the importance of ongoing research and conservation efforts to protect the unique wild bee biodiversity in the...

The decline of pollinator insects in various parts of the world has increased the interest in studies on bee sampling. Because pollinator management and conservation policies depend on data representing their communities, knowledge of the systematic bias of sampling methods in relation to surrounding habitat is fundamental. This study examined the...

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...

The area sourrounding the Mediterranean basin is recognised as a major biodiversity hotspot for bees, and Italy is amongst the European countries with the highest bee species richness. Detailed knowledge of bee distribution is crucial for understanding bee biology and designing tailored conservation strategies, but is still insufficient in southern...

Melitta schmiedeknechti Friese 1899 is reported for the first time in Italy. The species was collected in two different localities, mainland Sicily and Lampedusa, expanding its known range. Localities and flora visited are reported and, in addition, barcoding of two specimens was carried out.

Megachile (Chalicodoma) parietina (Geoffroy, 1785) is a Palearctic solitary bee included in the Red List of some central European Countries. Females build durable nests, reused year after year, by mixing soil with a salivary secretion. Like for most solitary bees, the resources contained within M. parietina nests attract several other insects which...

Lack of evidence for chemical integration of the cuckoo-bee Stelis nasuta (Latreille, 1809) and Coelioxys aurolimbata (Förster, 1853) with their main host Megachile parietina (Geoffroy, 1785) Abstract-Megachile parietina is a solitary megachilid species, which sometimes nests in large aggregations. Such a condition attracts a diverse entomological...

Pollinators play a crucial role in ecosystems globally, ensuring the seed production of most flowering plants. They are threatened by global changes and knowledge of their distribution at the national and continental levels is needed to implement efficient conservation actions, but this knowledge is still fragmented and/or difficult to access. As a...

An essential prerequisite to safeguard pollinator species is characterisation of the multifaceted diversity of crop pollinators and identification of the drivers of pollinator community changes across biogeographical gradients. The extent to which intensive agriculture is associated with the homogenisation of biological communities at large spatial...

Expansion of wild and managed allochthonous species leads to potential negative consequences for the endemic wildlife, such as resource competition, pathogens spread, hybridization and native species replacements. On Capraia Island, the last sighting of Bombus terrestris terrestris dates back to 1917. All subsequent surveys carried out on the islan...

Abstract of Presentation in the Abstract Book at the EURBEE 9th Congress of Apidology, Belgrade, Serbia

In recent years molecular techniques have been used on museum material as integrative support for classic taxonomy. This cumulative systematics approach is especially for rare or extinct specimens, and genetic analysis may be useful to discern information that is not possible to glean from live materials or morphology. To date, the extraction of DN...

Diseases contribute to the decline of pollinator populations, which may be aggravated by the interspecific transmission of honey bee pests and pathogens. Flowers increase the risk of transmission, as they expose the pollinators to infections during the foraging activity. In this study, both the prevalence and abundance of 21 honey bee pathogens (11...

Se navigando in Rete vi è venuta l’intenzione di acquistare un BEE HOTEL e di metterlo ad esempio in giardino, forse prima dovete leggere quanto segue e poi decidere.

A new species of Trachusa Panzer 1804 is described from Vietnam: Trachusa vietnamensis sp. nov. that is assigned to subgenus Paraanthidium Friese 1898 and is the first Trachusa species found in Vietnam. The species is described from a single female specimen, so the male remains undescribed. A morphological description and a series of pictures are g...

There is increasing interest in evaluating biodiversity to preserve ecosystem services. Researchers can sustain policymakers by providing tools, such as indexes and indicators, that need constant implementation to become accepted standards. Implementation may vary from re-evaluation of existing indicators to introduction of new ones based on emergi...

In Sardinia, the second largest Mediterranean island, 316 species of bees are known. Here, for the first time, the following 20 taxa are reported: Colletes cunicularius (Linnaeus, 1761), and C. eous Morice, 1904 (Colletidae); Andrena humilis Imhoff, 1832, A. granulosa Pérez, 1902, A. cineraria (Linnaeus, 1758), A. pallitarsis Pérez, 1903, A. rugulo...

The pollination ecology in agroecosystems tackles a landscape in which plants and pollinators need to adjust, or be adjusted, to human intervention. A valid, widely applied approach is to regard pollination as a link between specific plants and their pollinators. However, recent evidence has added landscape features for a wider ecological perspecti...

Beewatching è un progetto nato nella primavera del 2018 da una collaborazione tra alcuni entomologi del CREA (Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l’analisi dell’economia agraria) e alcuni botanici del BIGEA (Dipartimento discienze biologiche, geologiche e ambientali) dell’Università di Bologna. Il progetto nasce dalla passione per le api selv...

tacking the variables to be included in an indicator on pollinators, step by step from existing ones to missing information

Sicily (Italy) is an important hotspot diversity for bees and new species records are constantly reported for the island. Here, we rediscovered after 45 years without records, the occurrence in Eastern Sicily of Lasioglossum marginatum (Brull e 1832) confirmed by DNA barcoding. This is the only known species of eusocial sweat bees (Halictidae) with...

The decline of pollinators may alter the complex system of interactions that they establish with flowering plants, with potential negative consequences on both partners. Within this context, network analysis may be a useful tool to study ecological properties of plant-pollinator interactions and to evaluate the outcomes of conservation actions. Thr...

This report presents the proposal for an EU Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (EU-PoMS), based on the findings of an expert group of 21 people from 12 European countries. The EU-PoMS delivers of a cost-effective Core Scheme, which includes the most relevant taxa, is able to detect changes in the status of pollinators, has EU-wide coverage, and uses stan...

Eucalyptus species are important worldwide as melliferous plants, as a source of nectar and pollen, and contribute to the production of large quantities of honey, especially in summer when E. Dehn., the most common eucalyptus species in the Mediterranean area, flowers. Its honey yield potential exceeds 200 kg/ha, sometimes accounting for more than...

Nous registres d’Apoidea (Himenòpters, Apoidea, Apiformes) a Algèria Les recerques es van portar a terme durant el període comprès entre 2015 i 2017 en diverses regions del nord d’Algèria. Aquest estudi es refereix a Apoidea (Hymenoptera, Apoidea) i la seva distribució. Entre aquests insectes pol·linitzadors capturats a la vegetació natural i culti...

Lifespan has been a topic of scientific interest for about a century and, in this regard, hundreds of theories have been expressed, calling into question numerous causes of aging, but none of which appears to be decisive. Different species can have hugely different species-specific life spans, but several eusocial species, e.g. honey bees, show ver...

DIAGNOSTIC TABLE OF WILD BEE MORPHOGENERA IN ITALY. Table containing images and original drawings of 25 Morphogenera of wild bees and honeybee present in Italy. Morphogenera are groupings of genera according to a morphological resemblance. The work was designed, coordinated and directly edited by Marino Quaranta in 2019. The work has educational pu...

TABELLA DIAGNOSTICA DEI MORFOGENERI DELLE API SELVATICHE D'ITALIA. Tabella contenente immagini e disegni originali di 25 Morfogeneri di api selvatiche e ape mellifera presenti in Italia. I Morfogeneri sono raggruppamenti di generi secondo una rassomiglianza morfologica. Il lavoro è stato disegnato, coordinato e direttamente editato da Marino Quaran...

Abstract Bees collect pollen as an important resource for offspring development while acting as pollen vectors for the plants visited. Foraging preferences of pollinators together with plant species availability shape the web of interactions at the local scale. In this study, we focused on the bee pollinator community of a population of the rare pr...

The main objectives of this research are: 1) the creation of an expert network for the evaluation of the extinction risk of wild bees species in Italy; 2) the evaluation of the extinction risk for the species potentially at risk; 3) the identification of the main threats and the conservation actions needed to tackle them. The assessments of extinct...

The PREDICTS project—Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.uk)—has collated from published studies a large, reasonably representative database of comparable samples of biodiversity from multiple sites that differ in the nature or intensity of human impacts relating to land use. We have used t...

Figure S1: Database schema. Diversity data in yellow, GIS data in green and Catalogue of Life data in blue. The diversity tables datasource, study, site, measuredtaxon and diversitymeasurement follow the structure described in ‘Methods’ in the main text and in Hudson et al. (2014): a datasource is associated with one or more study records, each of...

The PREDICTS project—Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.uk)—has collated from published studies a large, reasonably representative database of comparable samples of biodiversity from multiple sites that differ in the nature or intensity of human impacts relating to land use. We have used t...

The PREDICTS project—Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.uk)—has collated from published studies a large, reasonably representative database of comparable samples of biodiversity from multiple sites that differ in the nature or intensity of human impacts relating to land use. We have used t...

Several biotic and abiotic factors affect the seasonal and daily activities of flower-visiting insects, which, ultimately, influence the composition and abundance of a pollinator community and the extent of their pollination service. The aim of this four-year study was to assess the effect of some abiotic and biotic factors on the abundance and act...

Vespa velutina Lepieltier, 1836 (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) is an invasive predator of honeybees accidentally introduced into Europe from eastern Asia. It was observed for the first time in southwest France in 2004 and in the following years it rapidly spread almost all over the country. In 2013 it was officially reported in Italy, in the region Liguri...

Land-use change and intensification threaten bee populations worldwide, imperilling pollination services. Global models are needed to better characterise, project, and mitigate bees' responses to these human impacts. The available data are, however, geographically and taxonomically unrepresentative; most data are from North America and Western Euro...

p>Land-use change and intensification threaten bee populations worldwide, imperilling pollination services. Global models are needed to better characterise, project, and mitigate bees' responses to these human impacts. The available data are, however, geographically and taxonomically unrepresentative; most data are from North America and Western Eu...

The interplay between insect and plant traits outlines the patterns of pollen transfer and the subsequent plant reproductive fitness. We studied the factors that affect the pollination efficiency of a pollinator community of Dictamnus albus L. by evaluating insect behaviour and morphological characteristics in relation to flowering phenology. In or...

Technical handbook of PP-ICON - Plant-Pollinator Integrated CONservation approach: a demonstrative proposal / LIFE09 NAT/IT/000212 project

Data S1. Data extract.

Biodiversity continues to decline in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species. Existing global databases of species’ threat status or population time series are dominated by charismatic species. The collation of datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeograph...

Andrena flavipes Panzer: population dynamics and floral preferences in a north-eastern Italian area. We studied the population dynamics and floral preferences of Andrena flavipes Panzer (Hymenoptera, Apoidea, Andrenidae), a common wild pollinator bee in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region (north-eastern Italy). In the periods 1997-2000 and 2006-2012,...

Andrena flavipes Panzer: population dynamics and floral preferences in a north-eastern Italian area. We studied the population dynamics and floral preferences of Andrena flavipes Panzer (Hymenoptera, Apoidea, Andrenidae), a common wild pollinator bee in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region (north-eastern Italy). In the periods 1997-2000 and 2006-2012,...

During studies of bee diversity and nesting biology in the province of Verbania, Piedmont, northern Italy, a bee species recognized as foreign to the Italian fauna was observed. Observations were conducted on their life cycle and nesting behaviour, and specimens were collected for subsequent identification. The species in question was determined to...

Generalist flowers are visited by a broad variety of insects that function as pollinators, occasional visitors and as pollen and/or nectar robbers. Moreover, among legitimate pollinators the pollination efficiency can be different. Nectar greatly affects visitor behaviour and fidelity to a certain species, influencing plant reproductive effort. In...

Overall, 9.2% of bees are considered threatened in all of Europe, while at the EU 27 level, 9.1% are threatened with extinction. A further 5.2% and 5.4% of bees are considered Near Threatened in Europe and the EU 27, respectively (101 species at both levels). However, for 1,101 species (56.7%) in Europe and 1,048 species (55.6%) at the EU 27, there...

The species belonging to the Andrenidae (Hymenoptera, Apoidea) in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region (North-eastern Italy) and surrounding areas have been examined with the same criteria as the previous two papers. Not only individuals collected by authors in the period 1980-2012, but also materials located in museums, universities and private collec...

Although an extensive research has been done on the contribution of wild insects to apple pollination, most of these studies did not evaluate the effect of the surrounding landscape context on local pollinator communities. Our aim was to compare communities of wild bees in 31 equally managed apple orchards located in three contrasting landscape typ...

A male specimen of Bombus terrestris (L. 1758) showing an intermediate colour between the subspecies xanthopus Kriechbaumer 1870 endemic to Corsica and the subspecies terrestris ubiquitous in the mainland was found within samples collected in 1999 on the Tuscan coast. Hybrid specimens between these subspecies are common on some of the islands of th...

We describe the spectrum of visitors of seven Mediterranean legumes and identify the potential pollinators by observing insects’ behavior on flowers. The diversity of each population's insect assemblage (flower visitors and potential pollinators) is calculated in order to estimate to which degree pollination systems are specialized. The importance...

1802) distribution in high mountains and global warming. The planet's global warming is seriously menacing the survival of a lot of species that are particularly demanding ecologically. Bumblebees include a great number of species with a boreal and/or high mountain, and often disjoint dis-tribution, that appear particularly sensitive to climatic va...

Abstract - In this second paper, data on systematic entities of the Apidae family (sensu PAGLIANO, 1995) are presented; many hundreds of specimens collected by the Authors or conserved in University and Museum collections were studied. For some species, in particular belonging to the genus Bombus LATREILLE, regularly collected for several years in...

Results of trapping trials in Italy confirmed that the non-sticky CSALOMON® VARs+ funnel trap was highly efficient for the capture of Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata Wiedemann) (Diptera: Tephritidae), when baited with either male-targeted (trimedlure), or synthetic female-targeted (ammonium carbonate, ammonium acetate, trimethylamine, p...

Results of trapping trials in Italy confirmed that the non-sticky CSALOMON® VARs+ funnel trap was highly efficient for the capture of Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata Wiedemann) (Diptera: Tephritidae), when baited with either male-targeted (trimedlure), or synthetic female-targeted (ammonium carbonate, ammonium acetate, trimethylamine, p...

Riassunto breve -La presente nota costituisce l'introduzione generale a una serie di contributi sull'apidofauna (Hymenoptera Apoidea) della regione Friuli Venezia Giulia e di territori circostanti, nonché la presentazione delle specie appartenenti alla famiglia Colletidae. Le altre famiglie degli Apoidei saranno presentate in successive note. Nella...