Updated knowledge on Italian Dermaptera with the report of a new alien species: <em>Forficula smyrnensis</em> Audinet-Serville, 1838

Abstract

The Dermaptera species number reported for the Italian fauna (27 species) is the most conspicuous among the European Union. The knowledge on Italian Dermaptera is among the most accurate in Europe, above all thanks to the large number of well-known entomologists who, over two centuries, have dedicated themselves to it in depth. Half of the species of Dermaptera known for Italy have indeed been described by Italian entomologists. Four species are alien and some of which have long been acclimatized in Italy. Among these, Forficula smyrnensis Audinet- Serville, 1838, is reported here for the first time from Italy, found in the Marche, Veneto and Emilia Romagna Regions in 2011, 2018 and 2020 respectively. The last record could suggest an acclimatization of this species in Italy. The knowledge of Italian Dermaptera was already very wide and accurate in 1994 when the 36th issue of the Checklist of the Italian fauna was published and even more so after the revision of 2005. The recent revision of the genus Chelidurella Verhoeff, 1902 on a molecular basis has substantially confirmed the great complexity for this genus in Italy and the ongoing research on the genus Chelidura Latreille, 1825 in the central-western Alps could unveil a similar complexity.

Biogeographical Patterns of Earwigs in Italy

“…However, it is important to note that about 40% of the native earwig fauna of Italy (including Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia) is endemic to this area (and this proportion would be even higher considering that the distribution of Chelidurella pseudovignai Kočárek & Kirstová, 2020 and C. mutica (Krauss, 1886) out of Italy is restricted to areas close to the borders of the study area), and relatively high proportions of the endemic species are found in most of the regions. The earwigs endemic to Italy can be classified into two main groups whose distributions correspond to the two main mountain ranges: the Alpine endemics ( Chelidura aptera (Megerle in Charpentier, 1825), Chelidurella poggii Capra, 1982, and C. vignai Galvagni, 1995) and the Apennine endemics ( Chelidurella caprai Vigna Taglianti, 1993, Pseudochelidura galvagnii Vigna Taglianti, 1999, P. orsinii (Gené, 1833), Forficula apennina Costa, 1881, and Forficula silana Costa, 1881) [ 4 , 8 ], which is consistent with the recognized importance of mountain ranges for cladogenetic processes in these animals in Europe [ 77 ].…”

“…The taxonomy was according to Fontana et al [ 4 ]. A matrix of species presence/absence in each geographical region and adjacent areas ( Table S1 ) was compiled by assembling data from literature sources [ 4 , 6 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 ]. Introduced species were excluded.…”

“…About 90 species of earwigs are known from Europe, 27 of which occur in Italy, which ranks second for the number of species among the European territories (the richest territory is Spain, which hosts some 30 species) [ 4 , 5 ]. Information on the taxonomy and distribution of Italian earwigs is very accurate, which makes the Italian fauna one of the best known among the European countries [ 4 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. This fortunate circumstance makes it possible to use earwigs as a target group to investigate biogeographical patterns in Italy.…”

Taxonomy of the Iberian species of Pseudochelidura (Dermaptera: Forficulidae)

“…The most species-rich among these genera, Pseudochelidura, endemic to Italy, France, Andorra, and Spain, was considered to include five species: P. sinuata (Germar, 1825), P. minor Steinmann, 1979, P. montuosa Steinmann, 1981, P. galvagnii Vigna Taglianti, 1999 (Gené, 1833) (Steinmann 1981;Herrera-Mesa 1999;Fontana et al 2021a). The high elevation areas of the Pyrenean mountains, lying between France and Spain, are thought to be inhabited by three species of Pseudochelidura, one of them, P. montuosa, considered extremely rare (Steinmann 1981;Caussanel et al 1990;Cuesta-Segura 2012).…”

First occurrence of the black field earwig, Nala lividipes (Dermaptera: Labiduridae) in Greece

“…The small number of reported alien Dermaptera could be related to both their low species richness as well as their cryptic nature. Until now, only two alien earwigs have been recorded from Greece, namely Euborellia femoralis (Dohrn, 1863) and Forficula lucasi Dohrn, 1865 raising the Greek earwig fauna to 18 species (Haas 2015(Haas , 2018Demetriou et al www.entsoc.gr © 2022Hellenic Entomological Society 2021Fontana et al 2021;Zafeiriou et al 2021;Kalaentzis et al 2022).…”