Biodiversity Journal, 2016, 7 (2): 249–252

Princidium (Testedium) laetum (Brullé, 1836) new to Italian
fauna (Coleoptera CarabidaeTrechinae Bembidiini)

Calogero Muscarella1 & Maurizio Pavesi2*

1Cooperativa Silene, Via D’Ondes Reggio 8A Scala G, 90127 Palermo, Italy; e-mail: calogero@silenecoop.org
2Museo di Storia Naturale, Corso Venezia 55, 20121 Milano, Italy; e-mail: maurizio_pavesi@yahoo.com
*Corresponding author,

ABSTRACT   The Mediterranean ground beetle Princidium (Testedium) laetum (Brullé, 1836) (Coleoptera
           Carabidae Trechinae Bembidiini) is herewith first recorded for Italy, on Favignana Island
           (Egadi Archipelago). The site of the species is a small complex of coastal temporary pools.
           Notes on the species and considerations on the significance of its local occurrence are given.

KEY WORDS  Egadi Islands; new species to Italy; Princidium (Testedium) laetum; Carabidae.

Received 27.05.2016; accepted 19.06.2016; printed 30.06.2016

INTRODUCTION                                          (Euphorbia dendroides L.). Nevertheless, flora
                                                      includes many elements of great phytogeografic
    Favignana, with an area of about 20 km2, is the   interest, as well as a number of endemic ones. A
larger island of Egadi Archipelago, west of Sicily    floristic survey, dating to sixties of XX century, on
(Trapani province). It is about 9 km in length and    Egadi islands records for Favignana about 570
4.8 km in maximum width, situated less than 10 km     species (Di Martino & Trapani, 1967). Recent
from the major island. The sea between the two is     surveys are expected to result in increase of this
shallow, the depth not exceeding 13 m, so that even   number (La Rosa, pers. comm.).
during minor marine regressions in the past they
have been connected to each other by an emerged           The first zoological surveys on Favignana date
land bridge.                                          to sixties of XX century, within the CNR “Piccole
                                                      Isole” (= small islands) project. Results refer mainly
    The island is crossed in its widest point by the  to Amphibia and Reptilia (Bruno, 1970; Lanza,
“Montagna Grossa” range, running from North to        1973) and to some Arthropoda groups, namely
South, reaching 302 m a.s.l. with the Mount Santa     Coleoptera Tenebrionidae (Focarile, 1969; Mar-
Caterina (302 m). East and west of the range there    cuzzi, 1970), Carabidae (Magistretti, 1971), Staphyl-
are two plains, “la Piana” (= “the Plain”) and “il    inidae (Bordoni, 1973), Curculionidae (Magnano
Bosco” (= “the Wood”) respectively. The formerly      & Osella, 1973; Osella, 1973), Chrysomelidae
existing woodlands have been almost completely        (Daccordi & Ruffo, 1975); Chilopoda (Matic,
destroyed; the landscape is at present rather bare,   1968); Diplopoda (Strasser, 1969); Araneae Dys-
largely dominated by grasslands and garrigues with    deridae (Alicata, 1973); terrestrial Isopoda (Caruso,
some typical elements of the Mediterranean            1973). Since then, further contributions resulted in
maquis, such as wild olive (Olea europaea L.),        increased knowledge for Coleoptera Tenebrionidae
mastic (Pistacia lentiscus L.), arboreal euphorbia    (Aliquò, 1993, 1995), Rhynchota (= Hemiptera)