Page 2 - Geraci_Schicchi_1991

178 Geraci & Rai mondo: Cytogcographical invcstigntion of Scilla aurl/mlla/is ...

1993. Battaglia 1957. 1964, Corsi & al. 1996). In thesc las! 1WO cou ntrics d iploids havc nOI
been recordcd.

s.In rtaly llutu/1/nolù is more rrequen! in the Mediterranean zones, and becomcs rare

northwards. Diploid populat ions were rccorded in Sici ly (Battaglia 1957), Sardinia aod
Pantelleria (Battagl ia 1964) and in Campan ia (Southcm ItlLty) (Ebcrt & al. 1996).
Tctraploids occur in scveralltalian localities (Battag lia 1957. Il luminati et al. 1995) and in
Sardinia (Battaglia 1964). Exaplo id populations havc li nally been found in tlle karst ic area
ncar Trieste (Banaglia 1957). In Sici ly previous reports conccm diploids ooly, from Scicl i
(South Easl of Sicily). locality Croce ncar Calania. S, Caterina VillcmlOsa (i n Centrai
Sicily) 3nd Floridia near Siracusa. In plants COllttled in these lasl IWO populations. B-
chromosomes were found (Battaglia 1957 & 196 3. Guillcn & Rcjon 1984).

In th is work a cytogeographic investigation has bccn carricd out Ilnalysing lifleen pop-
ulations of S. oulu/IIflofis in order to cval u;Jtc thc levels of ploidy in Sicily. This in com-
pari son w ith the genera i plo idy level v:irialion wi thi n tne wholc di ~trib ut ion oftne species.

Materia1a nd met hods

T he plams were colltttcd from 15 sites whosc locations comprehcnsi vely represent thc

S. alltllflllla/is distribution in Sici ly. Thcsc are rc ported in Tab.l.

Tablc 1. Locations. altitudc. date of collection of Ihe plam materia l studied.

l ocalily AUitude Date o( eollcetion Id .

Fontana ros~ (Erice) (Tm pa ni) 1m. s.l.m.I OclObcr 1999 2
l.ime~tone c1iffs. road Valderice- Erice (Trapani) Oclobcr 1999 3
Monte Cofano (Trapani) 500 Oclober 1998 4
San Vito lo Capo (Trapani) Oclober 1999
Road near Scopello S.5. 187 (Trapani) 450 Scplcmber 1999 ,5
Montc Gallo (PalcmlO) 400 OCloher [999
Cozzo di S.I' ietTO (M. Cata[fano) (PalemlO) 70 OctOhef [996 7
Rocci! di Caltavutu ro (Palcmlo) 100 Scptcmbcr 1999 8
Silva Rifonnati (Pctmlia Sottana--:\1adonic) (l'akl1l1o) 250-300 Oetoher 1996 9
Portella Bifolchi (Gemei Siculo - Madonic) (Pulenno) 300 OCloocr 1996 IO
Favignana ( Egadi Islands) (Tr-Jpani) 700 Octobcr 1997 Il
l'ortcl[a Scalazza (Marianopoli) (Caltanisseua) 1100 Scptcmbcr 1996; 1999 12
Riserva Natura[e de llo Zingaro ( Trapani) 1050 Scptembcr 1997; 1999 13
Ro,ld Sir-Jcusa nord-Beh'cdcrc (Sirncusa) 50-100 Octobcr 1999 14
I~oad Siracusa-F loridia (S iracusa) 700 Oetobcr 1999 15
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