New association between red wood ant species (Formica rufa group) and the myrmecophilic spiders Mastigusa arietina and Thyreosthenius biovatus

Ants belonging to the Formica rufa species group, counting 10 representatives in Europe, are often referred to as red wood ants (RWAs). These dominant, mound building species are known to host in their nests an extremely diverse fauna of associated myrmecophilic arthropods, among which are the two W-Palaearctic spider species Mastigusa arietina (Thorell 1871) and Thyreosthenius biovatus (O. Pickard-Cambridge 1875). The actual host range of these spiders within the Formica rufa group is little known, due to the taxonomic uncertainties that have characterized RWAs in the past. We conducted a large-scale survey for assessing the occurrence of both spider species in association with different RWAs, with a focus on an accurate identification of the ant species. We recorded co-occurrence data for 5 European representatives of the Formica rufa group, and we reported for the first time on the co-occurrence of M. arietina with Formica aquilonia Yarrow 1955, Formica lugubris Zetterstedt 1838 and Formica paralugubris Seifert 1996, and of T. biovatus with F. aquilonia. We found no association between the rate of presence/absence of the two spiders and host ant species or sampling localities, which suggests a non-selective exploitation of RWA hosts by the two myrmecophilic spiders

A ricardian analysis of the impact of climate change on permanent crops in a mediterranean region

This is the first study which explores the impact of climate change in Sicily, a small Mediterranean region of Southern Europe. According to research, Mediterranean area has shown large climate shifts in the last century and it has been identified as one of the most prominent “Hot-Spots” in future climate change projections. Since agriculture is an economic activity which strongly depends on climate setting and is particularly responsive to climate changes, it is important to understand how such changes may affect agricultural profitability in the Mediterranean region. The aim of the present study is to assess the expected impact of climate change on permanent crops cultivated in Sicilian region (Southern Italy). By using data from Farm Accountancy Data Network and Ensembles climatic projections for 2021-2050 period, we showed that the impact of climate change is prominent in this region. However, crops respond to climatic variations in a different manner, highlighting that unlike the strong reduction in profitability of grapevine and citrus tree, the predicted average Net Revenue of olive tree is almost the same as in the reference period (1961-1990)

Quality determinants and effect of therapeutic properties in honey consumption. An exploratory study on italian consumers

Nowadays, more and more consumers show a growing interest in healthy food products that may help to maintain or improve human health, such as honey. Honey has always represented a fundamental component of traditional medicine in many world cultures. However, only thanks to several studies carried out in the last years, its use is considered as an alternative and complementary medicine, namely apitherapy. In this way, honey is recognized increasingly by consumers not only as a natural alternative to refined sugar but as healthy food, as shown by determining an increase of its consumption worldwide. This study aims to explore the consumers’ determinants of honey consumption, trying to understand whether, and how much, therapeutic properties of honey aect the Italian consumers’ choices. The findings of this study, although exploratory, provide information on which quality characteristics influence honey consumption in Italy, revealing that, among quality attributes, the therapeutic properties of honey play an important role in aecting consumers’ behavior, followed by income, variety and taste. This could have some implications for producers and marketers as this information could contribute to defining eective marketing strategies for communicating to consumers the quality attributes of honey and its therapeutic benefits

First record of the genus Thyreosthenius (Araneae: Linyphiidae) from the Iberian Peninsula with notes on the host preference of the myrmecophilic T. biovatus

The presence of the spider genus Thyreosthenius Simon, 1884 (Linyphiidae) is for the first time confirmed in the Iberian Peninsula with an observation of the myrmecophile species T. biovatus (O. Pickard Cambridge, 1875). Four adult females and two sub-adult male specimens were collected inside mound nests belonging to the red wood ant species Formica lugubris Zetterstedt, 1838 in the Aragon and Catalonia regions of Spain. This represents the second known record of an occurrence of T. biovatus in association with F. lugubris, and the first for Continental Europe. In addition, the existing information on the host preference of this species is reviewed and discussed in relation to the new data from the Spanish Pyrenees

Mediterranean ants can increase nymph mortality in the stink bug Nezara viridula without interfering with its egg parasitoid Trissolcus basalis

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.) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), is a cosmopolitan agricultural pest which is regularly found on horticultural agroecosystems closely associated with its main egg parasitoid, Trissolcus basalis (Wollaston) (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae). We conducted laboratory experiments to test whether two Mediterranean ant species, the generalist predators Crematogaster scutellaris (Olivier) and Tapinoma magnum Mayr, attack N. viridula eggs or nymphs, and whether they interfere with the parasitization activity of T. basalis. The experiment showed that both ant species significantly increased the mortality of N. viridula nymphs, whereas they do not attack their eggs and do not interfere with the egg parasitoids. Our results suggest that ants and egg parasitoids may have an integrable role in biocontrol strategies against this pest

Good, Safe and Fair: Quality Perception and Consumer Demand of Locally Produced Beef in Southern Italy

The increasing concern amongst consumers regarding the safety and quality of the beef that they buy is the result of food scares that have characterized the beef market in the last two decades. These scares, together with environmental and ethical concerns, caused consumers to reflect upon the quality of the beef they eat. The aim of this paper is to identify which quality characteristics influence the incidence of local beef consumption on the total consumption of beef. It is assumed in this study that such choice is a response to a process of quality evaluation, which occurs combining specific quality attributes and socially constructed food quality criteria strictly linked to a socially fair dimension of local productions. Consumers who habitually purchase local beef at the butcher shops were the focus of our empirical strategy. Data were collected by administering a face-to-face questionnaire to 160 consumers in Sicily (Southern Italy), right after their purchases at the butcher shops. The results of this study suggest some implications in defining locally produced beef quality, making more accurate strategies possible when supporting the spread of production and consumption of beef at the local level.La pr\ue9occupation croissante des consommateurs \ue0 l'\ue9gard de la salubrit\ue9 et de la qualit\ue9 de la viande bovine qu'ils ach\ue8tent est le r\ue9sultat des crises alimentaires qui ont caract\ue9ris\ue9 le march\ue9 de la viande bovine ces deux derni\ue8res d\ue9cennies. Ces craintes, s\u2019ajoutant aux pr\ue9occupations environnementales et \ue9thiques, ont amen\ue9 les consommateurs \ue0 r\ue9fl\ue9chir \ue0 la qualit\ue9 de la viande qu\u2019ils consomment. Le but de cet article est d'identifier les caract\ue9ristiques de qualit\ue9 qui influencent l'incidence de la consommation de viande bovine locale sur la consommation totale de viande bovine. Dans cette \ue9tude, nous avan\ue7ons qu\u2019un tel choix est une r\ue9ponse \ue0 un processus d'\ue9valuation de la qualit\ue9 qui combine attributs de qualit\ue9 sp\ue9cifiques et crit\ue8res de qualit\ue9 alimentaire construits socialement, strictement li\ue9s \ue0 une dimension socialement \ue9quitable des productions locales. Nous avons focalis\ue9 notre strat\ue9gie empirique sur les consommateurs ayant l\u2019habitude d\u2019acheter de la viande locale dans les boucheries. Les donn\ue9es ont \ue9t\ue9 collect\ue9es \ue0 l\u2019aide d\u2019un sondage direct aupr\ue8s de 160 consommateurs en Sicile (Sud de l'Italie), juste apr\ue8s leur achat dans les boucheries. Les r\ue9sultats de cette \ue9tude sugg\ue8rent certaines implications dans la d\ue9finition de la qualit\ue9 de la viande bovine produite localement, permettant d\u2019\ue9tablir des strat\ue9gies plus pr\ue9cises pour soutenir l\u2019expansion de la production et la consommation de viande bovine \ue0 l\u2019\ue9chelle locale

Interactions between egg parasitoids and predatory ants for the biocontrol of the invasive brown marmorated stink bug Halyomorpha halys

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, which are the target of the main biological control agents, the scelionid parasitoids of the genus Trissolcus. However, ants, as generalist predators and territorial organisms, may kill or displace a variety of other insects, potentially interfering with parasitoids and biological control programmes. We conducted laboratory experiments to investigate the interactions between the Mediterranean ant Crematogaster scutellaris and the parasitoids T. japonicus and T. mitsukurii, evaluating the possibility that the ants could damage the parasitized eggs, attack the parasitoids during emergence or interfere with the egg-laying behaviour of female parasitoids. Our results demonstrate that C. scutellaris is not able to damage parasitized eggs and is not aggressive towards adult parasitoids at any stage. The presence of ants can slow down the parasitization rate in T. mitsukurii females in the smallest laboratory setups; however, this has not been observed in a more natural setting. We suggest that ants may play a complementary role together with egg-parasitoids in the control of H. halys without interfering with each other

Unlike rolling stones: not every Myrmecina species actively rolls away from danger (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

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, and to selectively display this behavior only under particular circumstances. We tested whether one of the other three W-Palearctic Myrmecina species, the rare insular endemism M. sicula, exhibited the same behavioral response, using the same experimental approach used for M. graminicola. Our results showed that M. sicula reacted to moderate disturbance by either freezing its body or walking away. Only when the individual lost contact with the substratum, it could curl into a ball-like shape, yet this was significantly less refined than the one displayed by M. graminicola, as the appendages of M. sicula are not tightly kept close to its body. However, M. sicula never performed the active rolling behavior that is readily exhibited by M. graminicola. Ecological, morphological, and phylogenetic constraints may have determined the lack of a developed active rolling escape-strategy in M. sicula. Further investigations are required to assess the presence or absence of this unique behavior across Myrmecina lineages

First report on the acrobat ant Crematogaster scutellaris storing live aphids in its oak-gall nests

This study provides new data about the role of ants in mutualistic interactions with aphids mediated by galls. We focused our investigation on galls induced by the cynipid Andricus kollari by conducting a survey and a subsequent experiment in an Italian oak forest. The ants Crematogaster scutellaris, Colobopsis truncata and Temnothorax italicus frequently used the galls as nests: Crematogaster scutellaris occupied galls which were located higher on the oak trees, while C. truncata and T. italicus were located at lower positions. In addition, galls occupied by C. scutellaris showed varied internal architecture in relation to the colony composition. Importantly, field surveys revealed for the first time that C. scutellaris nest galls also contained live individuals of the non-galligenous aphid Panaphis juglandis. Field experiments suggested that the ants actively seek, collect and stock live aphids. No signs of predation and injuries were detected on the stored aphids, which were probably kept for safe overwintering, though we cannot exclude a possible occasional use as food. This report reveals a possible novel relationship which could have important consequences on the phenology and presence of aphids on the host plant

Focusing on the role of abiotic and biotic drivers on cross-taxon congruence

Diversity patterns can show congruence across taxonomic groups. Consistent diversity patterns allow the identification of indicator surrogates potentially representative of unobserved taxa or the broader biodiversity patterns. However, the effective use of biodiversity surrogates depends on underlying mechanisms driving the strength of the relationship among taxonomic groups. Here, we explored congruence patterns in community composition among taxa occupying different trophic levels, accounting for abiotic and biotic factors: vascular plants and six groups of ground-dwelling arthropods (pseudoscorpions, spiders, darkling beetles, rove beetles, ground beetles and ants) were chosen as potential indicator surrogates. We evaluated the cross-taxon relationships using Mantel test; subsequently, we investigated if these relationships could partially depend on abiotic drivers, using partial Mantel tests; then, we evaluated the partial contributions of abiotic and biotic drivers in explaining these relationships through a series of variation partitioning analyses. Our results showed that a consistent cross-taxon congruence pattern was evident across almost all group pairs: pseudoscorpions, spiders, ground beetles and vascular plants showed the largest number of significant correlations with other taxa. Environmental gradients resulted as drivers of cross-taxon congruence, shaping composition patterns. However, they were not the only ones. Biotic drivers account for part of cross-taxon congruence among vascular plants and arthropod predators (i.e., pseudoscorpions and spiders, but also ground beetles), as well as among taxa at high trophic levels. Almost all strictly predatory taxa, known as biological control agents, emerged as the best predictors of plant community composition even when the role of environmental factors was considered. Spiders/ants and spiders/ground beetles showed close relationships and congruent composition patterns, irrespective of environmental parameters. Relationships among taxa might be driven by several complex biotic interactions (e.g., non-trophic and trophic interactions, direct and indirect interactions). Bottom-up and top-down forces, consumptive and non-consumptive interactions may play a role in influencing the community composition of taxa and driving the observed relationships. Future studies should broaden knowledge about the role of these forces and interactions in determining the congruence across taxa. The multi-trophic perspective in cross-taxon studies can be promising for identifying biodiversity surrogates and their application in conservation planning