New data on distribution and ecology of seven species of Euscorpius Thorell, 1876 (Scorpiones: Euscorpiidae)
Author
Colombo, Marco
text
Euscorpius
2006
2006-12-31
36
36
1
40
https://mds.marshall.edu/euscorpius/vol2006/iss36/1/
journal article
10.18590/euscorpius.2006.vol2006.iss36.1
1536-9307
12781855
Euscorpius italicus
(Herbst, 1800)
(
Figs. 17–20
,
Table 7
)
E. italicus
is the largest species in the genus, and the largest scorpion species found in
Italy
, reaching about
50 mm
in length. It is recorded from southern Europe and southwestern Asia:
Albania
,
Croatia
,
France
(introduced;
Simon, 1879
;
Kinzelbach, 1982
; Lacroix, 1991),
Greece
, northern and center
Italy
,
Macedonia
,
Monaco
,
Montenegro
,
Romania
(introduced), southwestern European
Russia
,
San Marino
,
Slovenia
(only coastal area;
Fet et al., 2001
), southern
Switzerland
, European and Asian
Turkey
; it was also introduced in northern Africa (
Algeria
,
Tunisia
) and Middle East (
Iraq
,
Yemen
) (Fet & Sissom, 2000). In
Italy
,
E. italicus
is common in northern and center regions, from
Piedmont
and
Lombardy
to
Latium
(excluding
Liguria
), and also on the Adriatic coast along Apennines from
Friuli-Venezia Giulia
south to
Molise
and Abruzzi (
Caporiacco, 1950
;
Crucitti, 1993
). The author studied this species in
Italy
from five different regions:
Emilia Romagna
,
Lombardy
(where it was already recorded by
Pavesi, 1878
),
Piedmont
,
Veneto
, and
Marche
(
Fig. 20
).
The altitudinal preference of
E. italicus
seems to range between 0 and
500 m
a.s.l., while higher records are maybe due to its recent dispersal through human activities (Vachon, 1952, 1983; Fet & Gruodis, 1987, after
Gantenbein et al., 2002
). In
Slovenia
(
Fet et al., 2001
), the highest record was ca.
700 m
a.s.l. In this study, most of the specimens was found between sea level and
400 m
a.s.l., with the highest collecting site (
four specimens
) in Cislano, Lombardy (ca.
650 m
a.s.l.).
Most of
E. italicus
were found on rocky cliffs (50.6%) and near or inside buildings, mostly abandoned (39.2%) but also inhabited (8.9%). This species is highly thermophilous and seems to be the most tolerant to water scarcity: indeed, lots of specimens can be found in sun-exposed dry rocky cliffs. At the same time,
E. italicus
Figure 17:
Euscorpius (Polytrichobothrius) italicus
, subadult female, Busto Arsizio (Lombardy, Italy) (photo by Giorgio Colombo).
Figure 18:
A subadult female of
E. italicus
surprised catching a caterpillar (
Malacosoma neustria
) in Peschiera Maraglio (Lombardy, Italy) (photo by Giorgio Colombo).
Figure 19:
High rocky cliffs are the most favorable environment for thermophylous species as
E. italicus
(Peschiera Maraglio, Lombardy, Italy) (photo by Giorgio Colombo).
Figure 20:
E. italicus
collecting sites. Emilia Romagna, Lombardy, Marche, Veneto, and Piedmont (Italy):
1.
Fermo;
2.
Monte Isola;
3.
Cislano;
4.
Campo;
5.
Ceraino;
6.
Varallo Pombia;
7.
Cernobbio;
8.
Isola Comacina;
9.
Onno;
10.
Cittiglio;
11.
Busto Arsizio;
12.
Montichiari;
13.
Ferrara;
14.
Felino;
15.
Montechiarugolo;
16.
Torrechiara;
17.
San Pietro in Cerro;
18.
Castell’Arquato.
Colombo: New Data on Distribution and Ecology of
Euscorpius
27