Page 8 - Muscarella_Baragona_2017

256 CALOGERO MUSCARELLA & ALESSANDRO BARAGONA

Coleoptera Odocnemis ruffoi ruffoi (Canzoneri, parently disassociated distribution of the Issid Ho-
1970). This last species belongs to a sub family of moptera Conosimus malfanus Dlabola, 1987, until
Tenebrionidae, the Elopinae, which in the Mediter- now known only for Marettimo and Salina. A future
ranean area enumerate several elements with a cir- deeper look of the research might reveal the pres-
cumscribed geonemy and numerous endemic ence of this species also alongside the northern Si-
species. Odocnemis ruffoi has an exclusively insular cilian coastlines.
Tyrrhenian distribution: nominal form is found in
Marettimo, while another subspecies (ssp. osellai Island of Ustica
Gardini, 1979) was described for the Island of
Montecristo, in the Tuscan Archipelago. This fact, The Island of Ustica, as the Aeolian Island, is a
together with the peculiar, systematic position of talassogenic island. It is the highest tip of a vast un-
the species, inspires the hypothesis of an area of dersea volcanic apparatus, whose base is over 2000
relictual distribution, which might have shrunk in meters below the sea level. The intense volcanic
comparison to the original one for unspecified explosive activity that took place starting from
(maybe ecological) reasons. Both the islands were Pliocene is accountable for the continuous accumu-
allegedly refuge-posts for O. ruffoi, while the isol- lation of igneous and pyroclastic material on the sea
ation might have determined a successive differen- bed which, in medium Pleistocene (approximately
tiation in the two sub-specific forms presently 350 million years ago) led to the emersion of the is-
known (AA.VV. 2009a; Aliquò & Soldati, 2010). land (AA.VV., 2009a; Bonomo & Ricci, 2010).
The case of Allophylax costatipennis godenigoi Ustica is separated from Sicily by a wide and deep
Canzoneri, 1970 is different. The species has a sea area and it has probably always remained isol-
northern-african type of distribution and it is present ated, even during pleistocenic regressions. The
on the island of Lampedusa (see Aliquò& Soldati, young geological age of Ustica, together with its
2010) while it seems to be lacking in Sicily. The dif- isolation, are the main conditions making its faun-
ferentiation of the population of Marettimo at an in- istic populations (prevalently of a Sicilian or south-
fraspecific level seems to be due to its geographical ern Italian type) not particularly relevant. (cf.
isolation in comparison to the ones of the rest of the Francino Corti & Lanza, 1973). Only 5 endemic
area of distribution of the species (AA.VV., 2009a). species, probably all of new formation, are pointed
Other important paleoendemic species of Maret- out for the island. The most interesting element is
timo are the Isopod Crustaceans Bathytropa ruffoi the Cave Isopod Spelaeoniscus vandeli Caruso,
Caruso, 1973 and Spelaeoniscus lagrecai Caruso, 1974, apparently well differentiated by the congen-
1973. The genus Bathytropa Budde-Lund, 1885 en- eric species (Caruso & Lombardo, 1995). Inter-
compasses 8 species diffused in different point esting is the presence of Oxychilus (Hyalocornea)
areas in the Mediterranean water basin: a distribu- nortoni (Calcara, 1843), a specie belonging to the
tion which, according to Caruso (1973), suggests a subgenus Hyalocornea Monterosato, 1892, in a par-
pre-Pliocenic origin. To the hypothetical fragment- ticolar distribution with O. (H.) alicurensis typical
ation of the Tyrrhenid of the tertiary period is to be of Alicudi, O. (H.) canini (Benoit, 1843) of north-
connected the origin of Spelaeoniscidae Racovitza, western Sicily, O. (H.) egadiensis Riedel, 1973 of
1907 (Caruso, 1973), a family present, for Italy in Favignana and Levanzo and probably also O. (H.?)
the sole Sicily with 5 endemic species, 3 of which pomelianus Bourguignat, 1867 of NW-Algeria and
in the circum-sicilian islands (Argano et al., 1995; the Galite Island in Tunisia (Riedel, 1980). The
Caruso & Lombardo, 1995). Other entities which Blattaria Ectobius usticaensis Failla et Messina,
are exclusive of the archipelago belong to genera 1974, according to Failla et al. (1973) and Failla &
which are rich in point-schizo-endemic species, Messina (1974) who minutely studied the anatomy
such as the Coleoptera Otiorhynchus (Aram- of the glandular dimples, allegedly belongs to a dif-
michnus) aegatensis Magnano, 1992 (present in all ferent evolutionary line if compared to Ectobius
of the three islands), Entomoculia hieratica Poggi Stephens, 1835 Sicilian and Aeolian. Opatrum
et Baviera, 2013 (Marettimo), the Chrysomelidae (Colpophorus) validum marcuzzii Canzoneri, 1972
Coleoptera Pachybrachis osellai Daccordi et Ruffo, is part of a Northern African chorotype present,
1975 (present in Levanzo and Marettimo). The ap- other than in insular Sicily with the nominal sub-