Natura Protetta - Speciale Biodiversià

dedicato allaBiodiversità

TrimesTrale di informazione del Parco - n. 6 - sPeciale BiodiVersiTa’

NATURA PROTETTA

Reg. Trib. Sulmona n.136 del 19/07/2007 Distribuzione gratuita

DIRETTORE EDITORIALEGIUSEPPE ROSSI

DIRETTORE RESPONSABILEMARIO CAMILLI

COORDINAMENTO REDAZIONALEVITTORIO DUCOLI

REDAZIONEEDOARDO GIANDONATO

ANTONIETTA URSITTIANNA CESIDIA PANDOLFI

GIANNA COLASANTEANIANA DEL PRINCIPECARMELINA DI LORETO

DANIELA D’AMICOLINA D’ORAZIO

SEGRETERIA DI REDAZIONENUNZIA PANDOLFI

ANNALINA NOTARANTONIO

PROGETTO GRAFICO/IMPAGINAZIONE VALENTINO MASTRELLA

HA COLLABORATOCRISTINA NOTARANTONIO

DISTRIBUZIONENADIA VITALE

STAMPASYSTEM GRAFICA - ROMA

FOTO DI COPERTINARosalia Alpina

VALENTINO MASTRELLA

Fotografie: ARCHIVIO PARCOVALENTINO MASTRELLA

GIANCARLO MANCORI, DANILO RUSSO UMBERTO ESPOSITO

PARCO NAZIONALE D’ABRUZZO LAZIO E MOLISE

Viale Santa Lucia67032 Pescasseroli (AQ)

tel 0863 91131 - fax 0863 912132

[email protected]

Contents

Life’s masterpieCe…! 3the park’s woods:

Biodiversity and sources of resources 5a Biodiversity treasure Chest 62010 - internazionaLe year fo Biodiversity 8the status of the Chamois 9amphiBians and reptiLes in the park:

Better and Better known, More and More at risk 10the park’s Biodiversity 12Birds 14the strange Case of the “insomniaC” Bats 16introduCtion to the park’s fLora 18the park, inseCts and Biodiversity 20the park’s hidden treasures 22

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3 Devoted to biodiversity

Life’s masterpieCe...! by Giuseppe ROSSI

The UN through UNEP, the United Nation Environment Programme, CBD-Convention on

Biological Diversity (the Convention signed at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 by 150 World Country Leaders) and IUCN-The World Conservation Union declared 2010 “International Year Of Biodiversity”.

This year will be a special and a symbolic year in the international and local commitment of each of the World’s countries to reducing the huge, tragic and progressive loss of biological diversity on the Earth.Thousands of vegetable and animal species die and disappear every single day, and the governments of the world’s countries will have to work from this year, with actions, decisions and imagination to find crucial solutions to what could become the most serious environmental, ecological and social problem of the coming decades: the impoverishment of life.The slogan of the communication campaign of the UN, CBD and IUCN project is:

“biodiversity is life,biodiversity is our life”.

A simple sentence composed of two simple and beautiful sentences that contain such a great deal...the secret link that unites our human life as community and individual with the life of our natural environment, the life of the dispersed habitats in each part of the Earth, of the rich and complex ecosystem in which we are immersed as humans, as animals. We all depend on them and on every single species that are living in them, and we receive from them resources, energy, food, breathe, complexity, beauty and wealth.Biodiversity is life, but it is also our life.Maybe we don’t notice it, maybe we don’t look at our planet with the right look, with the proper delicacy and sensitivity, with proper knowledge, maybe we are not aware of it, but the value, even merely economic, of the services furnished by natural environments to mankind is impressive, almost equal to the value of the global GDP, to be precise, billions and billions of euros each year. Maybe it is the extent of such value that makes it opaque, imperceptible. Perhaps also the fact that nature, with all the species that are living in it secretly, making it the greatest heritage for our future, is more discreet than mankind, maybe a little shy. But there, out of the way, nature works and lives to make possible life on the Earth and our life as well.According to the assessments of the world’s most important ecologists and biologists, the impoverishment of the living species

on the Earth is expected to reach an astonishing level this century: about half of the living species could disappear by the 21st century, with unpredictable effects on the other species life, including us, on the balance between all the Earth’s ecosystems. If solutions are not found, unimaginable scientific and biological information resources will be destroyed.The costs deriving from the failed promotion of such resources will be better understood by the next generations than by us, and they will be terrible.We could lose forever the opportunity to discover new medicines, new crop varieties, new kinds of wood, new fibres, new plants that regenerate the soil, new oil and other product substitutes, new food. And other wonders... We, as a species, live on Earth, but our real protective layer is the biosphere, the whole of life, which brings about water, purifies it, and preserves the soil ; but it is a thin layer that adheres in a fragile way to the planet’s surface. For each moment in our life, we depend on the delicate health of the biosphere.Each corner of nature, even the one that seems to be the poorest, the most arid, the simplest, is on the contrary very complex, full of life, almost invisible life: each cubic metre of soil and of humus is a world composed of hundreds of thousands of tiny creatures, representative of hundreds of species. The other species depend on them, in a chain of life of which a small link, only one, even if it might be one of the most beautiful, is us.But it is the richness, the depth and the variety of that chain that we have to preserve, protect, and love.

“every single living species

is a life masterpiece”said Edward Wilson, the great biologist and naturalist from Harvard in his lastest book “The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth” (Adelphi Edition). Each living species is a masterpiece of life because each one is part of a magnificent harmony and balance in a beautifully complex system where plants, trees, animals, flowers and endless microorganisms live together and interact with one another to sustain themselves, eat and evolve. Every day here, in our National Park, we are fully immersed in this beautiful complexity, in this surprising daily life together with thousands of other living species by our side. Saving this territory, protecting it from the impoverishment of its living species, we are saving an invaluable piece of earth, water and life. This part of earth, here on the most unspoiled Appennines, is the richest place for biodiversity in Italy.We know it thanks to the information that we can find, read, discover, and investigate. But we also simply know it because we can hear it, perceive it each time we go through thess forests, these unique places.

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4Devoted to biodiversity

Sometimes, personally, when I’m in a hidden wood, in a valley full of vegetation maybe on the edge of a small water flow, I find myself wondering: “here, in this isolated place of nature, right here where I stopped at this precise time, how many other people have come?”... this is a wonderful thing to feel immersed in an unspoiled, intact, almost secret place maybe with hundreds of hidden animals very close to us at this precise time. Then there is the pleasure of going through this place timidly, with a great deal of respect, astonishment, and silence, without leaving any mark, but only enjoying this time in which we can almost feel as in the primordial state of human beings, in the most direct contact with nature and life.I think we need to roam the earth that nobody owns and that everyone protects, whose immutable horizon is the same that marked our forefathers’ and ancestors’ frontiers. In addition, nature has this strange and unbelievable humility that asks for love, love that we can feel like an instinct toward all that seems so generous and, simply, unique for us. It is also these feelings that we have to protect in protecting the earth’s biodiversity and this unbelievable, special and precious Protected Area in which we are living. In our National Park, 8,354 species live: 2,841 trees, plants, flowers, and vegetable microorganisms, 5,513 animals, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, and insects... all these living species co-exist, evolve together, depend on one another, and form the wonderful harmony of the Park. Without them our life would be immeasurably poorer, or perhaps there would be no life for us either. Bears, wolves, chamois, roe deer, eagles, woodpeckers, royal owl, herons, salamanders, caterpillars and butterflies, beeches and black pine trees, silver birches, cornels, ladyslipper orchids, junipers, iris... we also depend on them, we live immersed in common habitats in which we are a species as well. The Park’s Biodiversity is so extraordinary, rich and complex that it constitutes around 13% of the whole Italian biodiversity, and around 6.5% of the whole European biodiversity. We are a place of invaluable richness for the whole of Italy and for the whole of Europe.A complex, varied, intact place in which the natural habitats still manage to become integrated and sustain one another in an unchanged and authentic way.In this pure and beautiful fragment of territory, there are infinite jewels hard to find elsewhere in Europe in such symbiosis among themselves, side by side, so interwoven and brilliant.We have to protect them with commitment and intelligence, tidily and carefully like the most precious thing we have. We are protecting our life here.Let’s think about the attraction that these places exert on people who visit them, pass through them, hear them. Here tourism lives on women and men’s desire to feel immersed in a pure beauty made

of life, animals, trees and landscapes that contain the mystery and the astonishment of meeting unique and surprising living species.Here we link the economy with life, our wealth and our communities with nature.However, 97 out of 8,354 species of the park are endangered. Their disappearance would mean poverty, defeat for life.Indeed, sometimes, it’s almost impossible to see, even only to catch a glimpse of, some rare animals, just think about bears, wolves... but we, inhabitants of this land, need them also as symbols. “Their presence around us proclaims the mystery of life, they are the jewels in the crown of creation” said Edward Wilson. “Knowing they are there, outside, alive and healthy is important also for our spirit, for the fullness of our lives”. If they live, it means that nature lives”.Let’s imagine the bear, the Marsican brown bear which is in these forests, as if in the last piece of heaven adapted to him. It is a native species and an endemism, it lives only here.It is the magic presence of the National Park, its most beautiful, elusive and mysterious symbol.Its habitat impoverishment could cause its extinction.But if the Marsican brown bear resists, we will know that the park continues to be a magic place that can host life’s complexity and depth. If the bear can roam freely here, we’ll know that the park is still an uncontaminated habitat of Italy, Europe and of the Earth.The biologists who deal with wildlife conservation need to know the current state of the bear’s health, but I hope there will always be far-off places in its habitat, distant from scientific explorations as well.The magic is also that a part of the bear’s life remains a mystery...Let’s simply protect and love all of it, life, and us.“

... da pag. 3

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Woods and forests are the real treasure chest of the Park’s biodiversity.

They cover around 60% of the protected area’s surface, and inside live most of the vegetable and animal species that are typical of this part of the Appennines.In general, the woods are the most complex ecosystems, where most of the ecological habitats are. This is due to the special structure of the woods, that cover a noteworthy space, thanks to the trees’ height, and to the fact that in this space, climatic and environmental conditions are generated,which also very different among themselves. In a natural wood, the whole available space, from the subsoil to the trees’ foliage, is occupied by several forms of life, from the simplest to the most complex, in a chain of relationships that optimizes the use of available resources.So, the forest soil is generally fertile, and many organisms live in it and turn the organic substance into humus. Herbs and bushes, which have adapted to the light conditions given by trees, grow on the ground. Dead tree trunks being decomposed by many vegetable and animal organisms are lie there. Several tree species compete to assure themselves of light and water and they arrange themselves in different layers of the available space. Arthropods, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals find food and shelter in the wood. If this is the “ideal” situation of the primary natural wood, mankind, who has always seen in the forest a resource of raw material and food, played a part in spoiling these balances, especially with deforestation and forestry practices. In our country, examples of woods that are close to the natural state described are very rare: a long history in the use of wood resources by mankind has led to forest ecosystems which are greatly simplified.It is very common, also in the Park, to see woods formed by only one treelike species, with individuals more or less equal in size: reforestations, generally using conifers like black pine in our latitudes, represent a poor wooded ecosystem, where few vegetable and animal species can live. However, reforestations carried out in the last decades, even if they produce a highly artificial wood, have developed and are

developing an important function: they prepare the ground to form more natural woods. Very often, travelling up and down our reforested pine woods, we can notice that different tree species have been born and have developed under the pine leaves, such as ash trees, maple trees and oak trees. The species that form natural woods, which disappeared for ages to leave their place to pastures, have come back thanks to the preparatory action of the pine trees, which permitted the formation of a sufficiently fertile ground layer.Another form of largely simplified wood is the coppicing wood. Generally in these places the native species were not substituted, but their “government” (as it is called in forestry terms) has been bent to the demand for firewood production. Using the stump re-generating capacity of many broad-leaved tree species, man prunes the wood in short cycles (every 20-25 years) to produce firewood as fuel. This kind of wood management, even if compatible with wood conservation, reduces in the long-term the productive potential of the ecosystem, because the ground becomes almost totally bare due to pruning every single decade, with the risk of starting erosion phenomena, and because the biomass produced is periodically pulled up.For this reason, the coppicing, whose importance decreased with the use of other combustible resources, generally became substituted, through opportune forestry practices, by the high trunk wood, where prunings are less frequent and the forest biomass is much higher. In our park, almost like in a sample of the wood diversity of our country, different forest groups and situations co-exist. Indeed, conifer reforestation cores, also quite recent, are present, where the evolution toward natural wood is just at the beginning, and therefore where we will have to wait a long time to have a biodiversity richness; huge surfaces still governed by copse are present, especially in the beech and oak areas, where evolution toward the high trunk wood is just at the beginning; however in the most remote areas of the Park, woods and forests only a slightly spoiled by the action of mankind are present, endowed with a special complexity and a natural level difficult to find in our country. In the so-called “old-growth woods”, there are trees of several hundreds years, and their

appearance is really similar to that of the natural wood described. These woods have to be preserved in their entirety, also because they represent an essential open laboratory to understand ever better the mechanisms of nature.However, in many woods of the Park, forestry is totally compatible with woods and the biodiversity conservation they contain: obviously it has to be a scrupulous forestry based on the understanding of the natural mechanisms of wood regeneration and on the demands of their whole components. Techniques and methods for carrying out forestry operations exist and minimize the impact on the ecosystem: for instance let’s think about the different techniques for the removal of the wood products and about the impacts they generate, for example the opening of a trail, the use of a little cable-car or of beasts of burden. In some cases the forestry operations are not only compatible with natural conservation, but they can also be, if well-conducted, extremely useful: the renaturalization of a reforestation, the conversion of a copse wood into a plantation can be “helped” and accelerated by wise farming operations.Consequently, the Park’s duty is to assess attentively the situation of each part of the wood, to identify its management methods, always bearing in mind the importance that the forest has in the protection of overall biodiversity, and to define, where is possible, the most suitable lines of intervention for the conservation of this special heritage, also in terms of compability with the population’s needs for firewood, wood and other products. As always, in the Park, considerable attention and awareness of the wood ecosystem’s complexity and a higher management quality are very important. But these are challenges that have always characterized this territory.

the park’s forests: biodiversity and sources of resources byVittorioDucoli


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By the term “biodiversity” we generally understand the variety of living

organisms, plants and animals present in the ecosystems.The most common measure used to define biodiversity is the richness of species, although this can be expressed at a genetic, population or ecosystem level.Biodiversity is not a recent phenomenon, but the fruit of 3 and a half billion years of evolution. Until now one million and seven hundred thousands species have been discovered but in reality it is supposed that another twelve million could exist: many are waiting to be discovered and some others will disappear before being identified.Biodiversity protects the survival of Earth’s life and that’s why it has to be preserved. The advantages of biodiversity for mankind, while imperceptible, are immediate: it allows the maintenance of the climatic balance whether on a local or planetary scale, the acquisition of knowledge to understand the analogous biological mechanisms of man, the sustainable use of flora for food and medicine and the satisfaction of the always growing demand for natural areas for recreational, aesthetic and spiritual use.The factors that contribute towards biodiversity loss are multiple and most of them are related to anthropic presence: habitat destruction, the introduction of foreign species and the rise in temperature.

That’s the reason why many States have committed themselves to reducing biodiversity loss in a significant way by 2010. On our planet some areas and some ecosystems, also very small ones, host about half of all living beings.Italy has an extraordinary biodiversity: its geographical location, its geo-morphological formation, its environment and climatic variety permit the presence of many species amongst the invertebrates, birds, fishes, amphibians and reptiles.In Italy, areas with the greatest diversity often coincide with protected areas.One of them is the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise, which has 66 mammal species, 230 bird species, 52 reptile, amphibian and fish species, another 5,000 invertebrate species and around 2,000 superior plant species.From the point of view of wildlife, the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise hosts unique and rare endemisms of noteworthy interest. It’s important to emphasize that the Park has had the virtue of preserving two of the greatest Italian carnivores, the Marsican brown bear and the wolf, and a species of great zoological importance like the Appennines Chamois, a gift from the ice age. But next to these “great” animals, it is appropriate to remember some other

animals, defined as “minor fauna” but not less important and always rarer outside the Park.Amongst the mammals we can name the mustelids (the badger, marten, stone marten, and weasel), the southern squirrel and the dormouse. Moreover, 25 different bat species of which some are very important for the fauna like Bechstein’s Bat, which is present in the Park with one of the biggest European colonies and the Barbastelle, which that needs old-growth woods and centuries-old and rotting trees for its survival.Concerning the bird population, the Park hosts around 50% of the species present in Italy. One of the most important birds without a doubt is the royal eagle, present in the Park with about 6 couples.Less impressive but all equally rare are the collared flycatcher and many woodpeckers, amongst them the very rare Lilford woodpecker tied to old-growth forests.Amongst the reptiles, the meadow viper is of great bio-geographical interest, whereas amongst the amphibians we have many endemic types such as for instance the Appennines fire salamander and the spectacled salamander.But it is among the invertebrates that there is the maximum richness in species.The systematic lists include many faunal types, and their number is destined to increase in the future as many orders require further investigation.

a biodiversity treasure chestby Roberta LATINI – Cinzia SULLI *

Amongst the invertebrates too there are prized and rare species like the white-clawed crayfish and the lake crayfish and Appennines endemisms, above all among the coleoptera of which chrysomelidae, carabidae like for example the ground beetles regarded as a “living fossil” and the cerambycidae rosalia longicorn related to the forest environment.The fortunate geographical position that placess the Park in the center of the peninsula in a convergence point between north and south and between east and west has influenced noticeably the plant diversity of its territory too: the Park flora contains about one third of the whole superior plant species of the Italian flora and includes plants from completly different vegetation worlds, with typically Mediterranean species next to typically alpine ones, plants of Balkan origin next to more western species. Many are the rare endemisms or the plants that deserve a particular form of protection: discovered for the very first time in the Park, the iris marsica is today also known in other protected areas in Abruzzo.An exclusive endemism of the Park is the Pinguicula of Villetta Barrea, a small carnivorous plant with viscous leaves on which insects are trapped and then digested thanks to particular enzymes transmitted on its leaf surfaces: known in the past as ordinary pinguicula, it has been reclassified as a new species by the botanist Fabio Conti, becoming a new species not only for the

Park but for the entire world.Another species known by fanatics is the lady’s-slipper orchid, a very beautiful, particularly attractive orchid that is in few places in the Park, with very few individuals.The uncontrolled picking of the plants has reduced their numbers over time. Amongst the orchids there are other rather interesting rarities like the epipogium, an orchid with reduced dimensions, devoid of leaves, with not very obvious colors, that lives in the beech woods undergrowth: it is a very rare orchid that has the characteristic of having discontinuous flowerings at often very long intervals that contributed to giving it the fame of being very singular plant to which the English gave the significant name of “ghost orchid”.It lives in the Park in a unique locality at an altitude of about 1300 m, in a splendid beech wood.Another orchid worthy of attention is the nigritella:this plant is characterized by a pronounced vanilla perfume and is present in the Alps with the nigritella nigra species.For a long time, it was believed that the Appennines plant belonged to this species: the studies led by professor Walter Rossi right here far-off in these mountains left in

the case of the flora as well a rich heritage made of icy relics, that is to say the remains of a vegetation which has disappeared elsewhere because of the global warming successive to the ice ages: among the so-called relics we find the silver birch, the mountain pine, the dryad – a small plant with white flowers typical of high altitude meadows.Other rare plants are the buttercup, the butcher’s broom, the peony and the edelweiss, which form a small group on the crests of some mountains just outside the Park borders.It’s important to emphasize how all these species have arrived until now thanks to the fact that the Park has managed to maintain the unspoiled ecosystem to which these species are linked; biodiversity maintenance in most cases is realized through a protector action on ecosystems but also through better informing and raising the consciousness of public opinion.Just taking part in the cultural growth of the visitor we can indeed make the awareness of the value of biodiversity grow, and also increase the attention toward all the species belonging to the Park’s flora and fauna.

* Park’s Scientific dept.


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With the decision of the 20th December 2006, the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) proclaimed 2010 International Year of Biodiversity.The Secretariat for the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) is the Focal Point of the Year.Third institutions and organisations interested are requested to act to defend biological diversity, to discuss and to offer to the public events and meetings to increase the collective sensitivity and to stimulate virtuous behaviors so as to contribute to stop the continuous loss of Nature.That’s why the natural protected areas and especially the national parks take a front-seat role in this difficult challenge for the defence of Humanity

2010 - internazionaLe year deLLa Biodiversity


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* Professor University of Siena

9

More than one hundred and fifty chamois have been counted in the whole park territory, of which 120 in the Val di Rose:

these are the numbers coming from the last census realized by the Park staff during the summer 2009.“A decisive piece of data” said Sandro Lovari, Professor of Ethology and Fauna Management at the University of Siena to whom had been entrusted a new research on the Chamois of Abruzzo, an animal of absolute value in view of the fact that the species is considered as “exclusive to the Appennine”. For Lovari it’s hard to be sure to have counted all the members of an animal population.“There are biologists of wild fauna -explained the researcher- who completely deny the usefulness of animal counting, because it is really improbable to succeed in seeing all the present individuals.In reality, the numerical valuations are useful to know at least if a population is decreasing or remains constant or if it is increasing over time”.For the Appennine Chamois, the situation is relatively constant. His research has yet to start: it’s at the beginning, there are no well-

informed data yet.In the last 2 years, Lovari realized inspections especially in the Val di Rose where he was 30 years ago to lead another research on chamois biology in the park. At that time, the total number of the chamois spotted in each counting wavered between 200 and 300, with a constant and well-proportioned population structure.“Today - the biologist went on - the situation has visibly changed. The countings carried out this year show 20% less than in 2001 for example, when there were 641 chamois spotted. The segments of the population born from 2002, the subadult individuals and young adults seem to miss roll call.The young still are born in a large number, but then they disappear before becoming adults. If this phenomenon is confirmed by the research, it will be necessary to define the causes and eliminate them wherever possible.All the same, Lovari has worked out an idea.“From my point of view -he continued- the aspect of the high altitude meadows has changed a lot compared to thirty years ago: the signs of overgrazing seem obvious for me but, being neither botanist nor pastoralist, I wait for the experts’ opinion. On the other hand, the presence of deer, sporadic a few decades ago, is widespread: in September 2008 I slept two nights in Forca Resuni and every evening I saw more than fifty deer in the meadows between Forca Resuni and Passo Cavuto.A beautiful spectacle, but also a respectable animal biomass which was not present thirty years ago and that grazes today in the area only occupied by chamois before. It’s also possible that a combination of factors, environmental or sanitary stress, act on the youngest individuals that have the fewer immune defenses, driving them to their premature disappearance”. Talking about environmental stress, the “restricted intake” remains valid , with the regulation of hikers in the areas where the chamois spends time, which came into force for the first time at the end of 1980.In the years 1981-82, before it was implemented in the summer months, Lovari showed a direct correlation between the number of tourists in Val di Rose and that of cases of disturbance of chamois groups, with up to nine consecutive chases of the same group by the same tourist.The result of this is also that pasture activity was for a long time the one most often disturbed by visitors, with the consequent moving of the herds to marginal areas.In 71% of 300 disturbance cases, it was due to tourists who left the path to go up to the chamois.The “restricted intake” plays a positive role -concluded Lovari- and an educational one as well: in the protected areas animals are a component of the ecosystems that deserve respect and that mankind should not treat like toys.Scientific research during the active phase of the study can also cause a kind of disturbance to animals but so long as it doesn’t produce long-lasting negative consequences on populations, it has to be tolerated given the positive results for conservation and to have adaptation of the management measures take place not blindly but on a documented basis. The role of good scientific research consists in replacing beliefs, rumours, fancies and tales with objective data.The documented information is necessary”.

the status of the Chamoisinterview with Sandro Lovari *

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amphibians and reptiles in the park Better and better known, More and more at risk

by Vincenzo Ferri *

IAt the center of attention of several studies and of the Park staff for decades,

amphibians and reptiles represent a significant part of the wildlife richness in this important protected area, though they are also the most difficult groups to manage and with the greatest conservation problems.Already safeguarded, also at a regional level with the RL No. 50 of 1993, some populations are progressively numerically decreasing also in territories apparently not very or not compromised at all from the environmental point of view.That’s what is happening to the Appennine yellow-bellied toad (Bombina Pachypus), which was considered as common in some humid areas between Alfedena and Castel di Sangro, at least until the 80’s of the last century, but that may be already extinct at least within the Park boundaries.A little toad with a bright orangey yellow belly, it is absolutely protected and linked to marginal stand of water in sunny areas.The activation of reintroduction and repopulation actions is almost impossible with the lack of vital populations known within or around the Park from which eggs and/or tadpoles could be taken without damage.But how many are the species that form the Park herpetofauna today?Skimming through the numerous scientific contributions available, but glancing especially through the data bank of the signallings sent to Societas Herpetologica Italica, Abruzzo- Molise Section, for the realization of the recent Atlanti herpetological of Abruzzo, 12 amphibian

and 14 reptile species can be considered well-represented here.Apart from the Appennine yellow-bellied toad, for which further research is necessary before being sure of its disappearance, it’s been years that observations of the marsh turtle (Emys orbicularis) are lacking.Recent signallings are also lacking for the four-lined snake (Elaphe quatuorlineata), which may have been too regularly hunted and captured for its thousand-year-old function of messenger toward gods and saints in the unique European ophidian celebrations (in Cocullo and Pretoro).Hopefully, the situation is not compromised for the other species, on the contrary. Some of the richest Abruzzo populations of Appennine fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra)and of the Northern spectacled salamander (Salamandrina perspicillata), syntopic in the humidest valleys and close to streams, can be found in the Park inside or on the edge of the most old-growth beeches.Anyway the salamander, because of its small size, with its cryptic dorsal livery and its elevated environmental demands (which can make a population concentrate in just under ten meters of suitable habitat) is not easy to observe.The common toad (Bufo bufo), the Appennine green frog (hard to distinguish the non hybrid form Pelophylax bergeri from the hybrid one (Pelophylax hispanicus)) and the Italian tree frogs (Hyla intermedia) are very abundant.The Appennine red frogs (Rana Italica) are less numerous. They are more tied to the smaller streams and in forest environments.The recent observation of a small group of

agile frogs (Rana dalmatina) is confirmed in Barrea, even if this species had already been seen in other protected areas of Abruzzo. The last amphibian is the emerald toad (Pseudopidalea viridis) that can occasionally be observed in a few habitats (e.g. Opi, Alfedena).More than an attested presence, it should be a matter of single individuals carried with loads of river sand coming from the low Valle di Sangro.The well-known populations of the Italian crested newt (Triturus carnifex) are important, among which the one, isolated and at an altitude rarely reached elsewhere, at the springs of the Pantaniello lake, at about 1900 m. a.s.l. Also important are the relic populations of smooth newt (Lissotriton vulgaris meridionalis) of the Vivo Lake, 1591 m. a.s.l., that are - at least on the Adriatic coast - among the best-known southerners.The small populations of meadow viper (Vipera ursinii) are among the reptiles that stand out for conservationist interests.The Camosciara and Mount Marsicano are well-known places, the signallings of the Gruppo della Meta more interesting. Here the first data go back to the 70’s (Bruno, 1973), but since then the species seem to have literally disappeared. We owe to Maurizio D’Amico’s research the confirmation that luckily here too, at about 1850 m. a.s.l. the small and rare viper, almost harmless, is also present.Recent signallings concern also the ridge between Mount Tartaro and Mount La Meta, where the aspic viper (Vipera Aspis) seems to be commoner though, found on Mount Tartaro up to 2050 m. a.s.l.. Its large


ecological value and bigger dimensions certainly favour the asp, especially thanks to global warming which also concerns this part of the Appennines. Being one of the small Italian places of confirmed synthopia between the two species, monitoring for each population will be activated as soon as possible. Western green lizards (Lacerta bilineata) and the wall lizards (Podarcis muralis) are common in the Park, whereas the ruin lizard (Podarcis sicula campestris) is limited to few marginal places or only just outside the protected areas of the Park boundaries.The Italian three-toed skink (Chalcides chalcides) and the slow worm (Anguis fragilis)

reach high altitudes in different places. Among the saurians, the common gecko (Tarentola mauritanica) remains occasional and almost always due to passive transport from the Adriatic coast without accoutumance. Besides the two vipers and the « cervone » snake, 4 other snakes can easily be met in the different environments of the Park: the green whip snake (Hierophis viridiflavus), the grass snake (Natrix helvetica), the aesculapian snake (Zamenis longissimus) and the smooth snake (Coronella austriaca).The population of the last ophidian present in the Park is concentrated almost totally along Barrea Lake and the Sangro River: it’s

the fishing grass snake par excellence, the dice snake (Natrix tasselata). The snakes are probably the most dreaded and probably the most perseecuted vertebrates in the Park, despite the laws that protect them: a complex situation that requires naturalistic and cultural synergic actions. The National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise could assume, in the field of Ophidian conservation, a strategic role and become a national model for the management of this fauna group.

*Herpetologist,Scientific Committee

Lombardia Amphibians Center


La fLora: 2841 speCieendemismin the park: Iris marsica - Marsican iris Pinguicola vallis regiae - Bytterwort of Villetta Barrea

rare speCies, endangered speCies: Epipogium aphyllum - Epipogium; Nigritella Widderi - Nigritella; Paeonia officinalis - Peony; Trollius europaeus - Globe-flower; Ruscus acu-leatus - Butcher’s broom; Leontopodium nivale - Edelweiss; Genziana lutea - Great yellow gentian; Cypripedium calceolus - Lady’s-slipper orchid

the fauna: 5513 speCiesendemisms in CentraL itaLy: Rupicapra pyrenaica ornata - Apennine chamois - Ursus arctos marsicanus - Marsican brown bear

rare speCies: Buprestis splendens - Goldstreifiger; Carabus violaceous - Ground beetle; Calosoma sycophanta - Calosoma; Vipera Ursinii - Meadow viper; Picoides leucotus lilfordii - White-backed woodpecker; Salamandra salamandra - Fire salamander

La Biodiversità deL parCo

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pinguiCoLa vaLLis regiaeDescription: the butterwort is a small carnivo-rous plant belonging to the Lentibulariaceae fa-mily, which reaches 3 - 16 cm. The flower, very beautiful, is purple.Habitat: it is a species related to humid environ-

ments and can also grow in shade environments.oDDity: The butterwort, like other carnivorous plants, captures and digests the little insects that settle on its leaves, thanks to a mucilage substance similar to small water drops.The insects are attracted by the wet appearance of the leaf and they are dragged down; as soon as they begin to struggle, more glands are activa-ted that release more mucilage till they are completely covered.in tHe park: Located in very few places the species present in the Park is a new species unique in the European flora.conservation: exactly because it is a new species it is surely very rare but not yet included in any of the international norms for the protection of fauna and flora species.

white-BaCked woodpeCker(dendroCopus LeuCotos LiLfordi)size: slightly bigger than the great spotted woodpecker, it has a length of around 25 cm.Habitat: mainly moves in high trunk beeches that are over 1200-1300 m. of altitude.

FooD: eats adult insects and in the embryonic state, which it captures with its long retractable tongue inside the cracks or inside the holes of trunks and dead stumpsbreeDing: nests in the middle of the spring favouring old-growth woods, using hollow cavities in the damaged or dead tree’s trunk. oDDity: the Lilford’s subspecies, present in southern Europe and so in the Park, despite its name, doesn’t have a completely white back, but one with large black and white stripes. cHaracteristics: differs from the great spotted woodpecker because of the ab-sence of white shoulder-pads on the wings and, for males, because of the presence of a red shiny colouring on the head. The female has a black head. The call is similar to the blackbird’s and the drumming on the trees’ trunk has a final phase which is more accelerated.in tHe park: the park territory is very important for the conservation of this species, as it hosts 80% (200-250 pairs) of all the pairs nesting in Italy. The Park Institution has been involved for a long time in preserving dry trees from cutting, which form an important food resource, but above all the ideal habitat for the nesting of this species.conservation: considered at the community level as a low risk species in Italy it is in reality very rare (Abruzzo, Gargano) and so it is included in the national Red List of species at risk. Lista Rossa nazionale delle specie a rischio.

rosaLia aLpinasize: it is a beetle of the family Ce-rambycidae, from 20 up to 38 mm long, feelers excluded.Characteristics: its colour is ashen blue, with black spots and strips surrounded by a tiny white line; the feelers are long, blue and black.Habitat: it prefers beech forests between 500 and 1800 m. of altitude.FooD: the larvae eat the beech’s dead wood.breeDing: the eggs are deposited on rotting stumps, dead parts of healthy plants and fallen trunks.The larval development usually lasts 3 years, the adult appe-ars in June-August and is active during the day. oDDity: it is regarded by scientists as one of the most beau-tiful and impressive beetles in Europe.in tHe park: the Rosalia Longicorn is threaten by the re-duction of the old-growth and natural beech’s woods, so the Park Institution, through specific projects of mature forest conservation that restrict the destruction and removal of dead or rotting dead trees, contributes greatly to preserving this species’ habitat.conservation: it is considered as rare and vulnerable and included in the Habitat Directive as a Community interest species that needs strict protection (Appendix IV) and who-se conservation requires the designation of special areas of conservation (Appendix II)It is regarded as vulnerable by the IUCN.

meadow viper (vipera ursinii)size: smaller than the com-mon viper, the male measu-res up to 40 cm, the female is bigger.It lives from 7 up to 10 ye-ars old. Habitat: high altitude me-adows preferably with juni-per bushes. FooD: especially orthopteran insects, occasionally lizards and small rodents.breeDing: the mating only happens in May. Being vivipa-rous reptiles, the females deliver 2-5 young in August or September.oDDity: the name derives from the naturalist Antonio Or-sini (1788-1870) who described it first.cHaracteristics: it is characterized by a very light colour, on which a much darker zigzag strip stands out. The very big scales on the head are caracteristic. Because of its small-scaled teeth, it has a very weak poison system and that’s why its possible bite doesn’t involve serious harm to man.in tHe park: It is present with only two groups on the Mai-narde and on Mount Marsicano.conservation: it is included in Appendix 2 of the Con-vention of Bern on the wildlife conservation of the Europe-an natural environment, in the Appendix 2 of the by-laws (CE) n. 2307/97 (CITES) and it is included in the Appen-dixes II and IV of the Directive 43/92/CEE “Habitat”. It is included in a red list of IUCN in the vulnerable species category.


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what do we mean By Biodiversity ?It’s an ample term that describes the variety of life on the Earth and all natural processes.A standard definition exists used by the Convention on Biological Diversity and commonly accepted, that says:“the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.”

onLy 40% remainsThe Millenium Ecosystem Assessment, the larger and more detailed study on the state of the planet ecosystem, contained in 5 technical volumes and 6 synthesis reports, realized by more than 1400 experts coming from 95 countries in the world, shows that more than 60% of the planet ecosystem is damaged or overexploited.The study says that the variety and quantity of species are decreasing at a speed never observed before; this represents a great threat for the well-being of future human generations. Those responsible for biodiversity loss are humans themselves

itaLy at a gLanCeAmong the most endangered European species, those who live in Italy are:

12 of mammals15 of birds4 of reptiles

5 of amphibians17 of fishes

16 of molluscs42 of other invertebrates

3 of plants

Biodiversity in itaLy6,000 vegetable species 57,000 animal species 56,168 invertebrates

1,254 vertebrates43 mammals

473 birds58 reptiles

38 amphibians473 bony fishes

73 cartilaginous fishes

the state of Biodiversity in europeEuropean biodiversity includes 488 bird species, 260 mammal species, 151 reptile species, 85 amphibian species, 546 freshwater fish species, 20-25,000 plant species and more than 100,000 invertebrate species. On the European continent, 42% of the mammals, 15% of the birds and 52% of the freshwater fishes are threatened; moreover, almost 1,000 plant species are seriously at risk or endangered.23% of the amphibians and 21% of the reptiles in Europe are threatened with disappearance. 59% of the amphibian species and 42% of the reptiles are in decline. (UE/Relazione della Commissione al Parlamento Europeo del 13 luglio 2009 e IUCN)


The National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise is famous especially for

the presence of the Marsican brown bear and for the Abruzzo Chamois, which rightly put it among the most important protected areas in Europe. However, the Park territory hosts and takes care of many bird species, of which some are of utmost importance.When, in this brief synthesis, the Park is mentionned, the External Protection Area is always included too, which constitutes an essential living environment for all the species reminded.Above all we have to remember the diurnal birds of prey and among them the royal eagle, the griffon vulture, the short-toed eagle, the Northern goshawk, the peregrine falcon and the lanner falcon.The royal eagle is present with 6 pairs, of which one is a very recent group.In the Park territory, this species reaches one of the highest densities in the whole Appennine, thanks especially to the efficient guardianship of the area that includes, among others, a notable abundance of species which are objects of predation for the great bird of prey. In addition, the abundance of wild ungulates and in particolar of the deer give an important food resource to the eagle, during the winter, formed by animals which have died of natural causes or of predation by wolves.In the 90’s the reintroduction of the griffon vulture was realized with success in the Natural State Reserve of Monte Velino. Gradually the area frequented by the griffons has increased and in the last few years it has possible to see, even if not frequently, small groups of griffons majestically wheeling on the high altitude meadows of the Park, looking for any dead herbivore, whether domestic or wild.It is possible that in the next few years

these presences will become more frequent and it is not excluded that, on some suitable rock faces, a nesting colony settles.The short-toed eagle, white on the lower parts as its Italian name (biancone) indicates, a majestic migrant eagle specialized in the hunting of snakes, is present with some pairs nesting in Ciociaria and it is possible to observe the adults hunting snakes on the Lazio side of the Park.The high trunk beech woods and the adult pine forests constitute the environment where the Northern goshawks hunt their prey and form their voluminous nests.Because of their purely forest habits, they are not really visible, apart from the display period. This species is probably less rare than what the observations would say.The peregrine falcon, a very beautiful falcon with a powerful flight and specialized in the hunting of birds in mid-air, nests in cavities on the rock faces and is fairly frequent in the Park.The situation of the lanner falcon is completely different. It is a falcon with similar size and other notable similarities to the latter.It is very rare and it is justifiably considered as a species of high conservation priority by the European Union.In the Park, a nesting pair is present, maybe two.They reproduce the most in cavities on the rock faces. It often escapes from observation as it is kind of elusive, contrary to the peregrine falcon. The white-backed woodpecker is the bird species of utmost scientific and naturalistic importance in the Park, where indeed is located, if not the unique, certainly the most important Italian population of this woodpecker.Its living environment is exclusively constituted by the mature beech woods

rich in large tress and in dead or decayed specimens. These trees are essential for this bird, whether to look for insects to eat or to dig cavities in which to nest.Other important species can only be mentioned because of a lack of space, like the honey buzzard, the very rare Eurasian eagle-owl, the lesser spotted woodpecker, the wall creeper, the white-winged snowfinch, the Alpine accentor, the collared flycatcher, the red-billed chough, the Alpine chough, the common raven.This latter species was reintroduced in the 90’s in the Natural Reserve of Monte Velino and is gradually colonizing the territory again, the Park included, from where it had disappeared in the 60’s because of the poisons used against predators.The Park’s head office gave ALTURA (Association for the guardianship of birds of prey and of their environments), in summer 2009, the responsibility for determining the situation for this corvid, as well as the Northern goshawk and the honey buzzard, on the Park’s territory.The situation of the Park’s birds is, by and large, reasonably satisfactory. However, it is fair to recall that if the wind power stations are realized, and they are in a more or less advanced stage of development, in the areas close to the Park, all of utmost importance for the protected wildlife in the Park itself, it’s not hard to assume the extinction in the space of few years of pecies like the royal eagle, the griffon, the short-toed eagle, the red-billed chough, the common raven, either because of the decline of the environment where the power stations would be realized or especially because of death by collision with the huge rotating blades, as has already happened in many other places and is still happening.

*Presidente di ALTURA

birdsby Stefano Allavena *


t he bats are mammals seriously threatened by the action of mankind:

deterioration or loss of sanctuaries, diffusion of pesticides, and too intensive forest management are some of the main causes of the population decline observed more or less all over Europe.Essential for the ecosystems’ health, bats are unweary predators of insects, among which are many species harmful for human health and for crops. Nowadays bats are strictly protected by national and international legislation because their important role of ecosystem regulator and their great contribution to global biodiversity (more than 1100 species all over the world and 33 in Italy) has been recognised.The National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise constitutes a real oasis for these mammals, especially thanks to big forests rich in old trees and dead wood on which many bat species find refuge essential to their survival. It’s no accident that the main studies on one of the most threatened European species, the barbastelle, have been conducted by this author precisely on the Park territory thanks to the continuous support of the Institution and its Scientific Department, drawing management information not only obtained in the protected areas but also from some foreign institutions, all in all useful for the Appennines woods as for

British ones.I don’t want to deal with that though but rather with an almost accidental discovery, made exploring the woods of the town of Villavallelonga, where we were precisely looking for barbastelle sanctuaries.Our story doesn’t have anything to do with the barbastelle... it’s only that, looking for the sanctuaries during the day, we have occasionally looked up and, in some wood, observed in-flight bats.And you are wondering what is the peculiarity!? The fact is that, looking at the time, we realized that it was one hour before sunset and that these bats were active much before they normally were. At this point, we need to stop on an important point.Zoologists think that the bats have developed nocturnal behaviour to avoid falling into diurnal birds of prey’s clutches, predators too dangerous for them. The progressive solution has been to postpone their activity after sunset and only at this moment begin hunting.Of course, each species leaves the santuary at a different time (some just after the sunset, others in the pitch dark). In addition, the same species can go out at a different hour depending on how much the sanctuary is protected by the vegetation or on their physiological state (for instance the females at the end of gestation, being weighted down by the foetus, fly more slowly and

are exposed to a bigger risk of predation, so they are compelled to go out later than normal).But we are still dealing with small variations on the general habit, which is to take advantage of the protection offered by the night, impenetrable for the thin eyes of diurnal birds of prey.To tell the truth, in some cases, it is possible to observe bats’ flights in broad daylight.They are rare cases though, generally related to individuals that, starved by a long hibernation, “decide” to take a major risk and fly under the sun’s rays in order to gorge on insects and to restore the reserves of fat burnt during the never-ending winter. However the whole life of a researcher would not be sufficient to collect enough data on this kind of phenomenon. In addition, in some isles never reached by birds of prey dangerous for the bats, some species can be active during the day.This is particularly the case for the Lesser noctule, exclusively in the homonymous Atlantic Ocean archipelago, or for very special situations observed in other oceanic isles. Strangenesses limited to remote places and definitely isolated from dry land. At this point, let’s flashback and let’s go back to our home, to the Park and to the woods of Villavallelonga.After the first observations, we decided to study in depth, and we noticed 2 essential aspects. First: they are not occasional flights but

the strange case of the “insomniac” batsby Danilo Russo *


behaviour manifested systematically by only one out of about 15 species that live in the woods of this territory, the Soprano bat (Pipistrellus pygmaeus).This is the smallest European bat, generally observed hunting on lakes and rivers and only secondly in woods.The bats at issue were not aberrant individuals: this observation is a strategy of a whole population adapted to hunting in forest. So precocious, or “insomniac” if you prefer, that they turn out to be active until over 75 minutes before the sunset.The same species, on the Sangro river (precisely in the part that goes through the town of Villetta Barrea) is totally different: it begins hunting at about one hour and a half after its conspecific of Villavallelonga.All in all, a local adaptation allowed by the protection offered by the woods, whose bushy structure stops the entry of dangerous birds of prey that hunt relying on their sight. The second aspect that we discovered: this behaviour is not observed everywhere in the wood, but only in a narrow impluvium

that cuts through the reliefs of the area of study, where besides the protection offered by the wood, there is also another circumstance: big swarms of small insects, that we have identified, fly off exactly when the “precocious” bats go on their rampage.Briefly, it is the combination of plentiful of food and the protection of the wood that make this forest place in the Park so special for bats and for science, so much so that our discovery, published in the international magazine “Mammalian Biology”, has been taken up by newspapers, TV, and many weblogs, quoted by the RAI, BBC and National Geographic!All in all: the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise will never stop surprising us with its biological diversity, whose definition needs also to include the variety of strategies and the adaptations that make possible the survival and the coexistence of so many different species.

* Professor Università degli Studi Federico II di Napoli


The florisTic exploraTion

t he territory of the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise has been fully studied from the floristic point of

view, also thanks to the presence of the protected area that has always attracted researchers and encouraged new studies. The first bibliographical citations date back to the early 800’s and after many contributions, we came to the publication of the first flora of the Anzalone and Bazzichelli Park (1960) in which 1377 entities are enumerated. A more updated list concerning a vaster territory that includes enlargements of the Mainarde and of the External Protection Area was made by the writer in 1995 and includes 1912 entities.This number too has been increased by successive updates and 2000 natural and naturalized entities are currently known (in the counting, the ones cultivated were not taking into account).It is a significant number, among the most important in Europe and even more surprising if it is taken into account that the studied area extends for only 1,000 km².

phyTogeographic consideraTions

Tenore and Gussone (1842), after the first explorations, talk about the Mounts of Picinisco and of Chiarano:

“...Quantunque pel numero e rarità di questi (vegetabili) non possano con Monte Corno, col Velino, e più di tutto con la Majella mettersi in confronto, dappoiché questi monti di molto le sorpassano, pure vedrete che non mancano di alcune piante loro proprie; e d’altra parte, siccome esse ci presentano un limite geografico, che molte specie non oltrepassano verso il Sud, così la lor flora di qualche interesse diventa pure per la botanica greografica del Regno.”

The species that reach the Southern boundaries of their peninsular layout in the Park of Abruzzo are indeed of utmost phytogeographic importance (also in the light of more recent discoveries).Among them there are especially artic-alpine species and circumboreals in which the population distribution in the Appennines is concentrated at high altitudes.

introduCtion to the aBruzzo, Lazio and moLise park’s fLora

AnotAblefloristicheritAgeennobleDbyAhighpercentAgeofenDemismsAnDbyimportAntphytogeogrAphicemergencies.

by Fabio Conti *

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Indeed the Park constitutes the peninsular part of the territory that offers at the most southern latitudes the greatest number of summit habitats.A southeastern parts of the Abruzzo Appennines, this territory is divided from the peaks of the Southern Appennines by important geographic boundaries like the Volturno valley and the low-lying curves of the Daunia reliefs. On the contrary, few species reach in the Park the Northern boundaries of their Italian areass. Acer cappadocicum, subsp. lobelii, endemic to the centre-southern Appennines reaches in Abruzzo the Northern boundary of its area. For other plants like for instance Phlomis fruticosa and Biarum tenuifolium, their presence is undoubtedly due to the poximity of the Fucine basin and of the internal basins of Abruzzo, characterized by thermo-xerico climatic conditions.We need to add to them the numerous steno-mediterranean elements abandoned on the piedmont rocks and in the hotter low slopes. Among the most significant: Ampelodemos mauritanicus in the vicinity of Scapoli and Colli al Volturno; Erica multiflora near the Campanaro cave Lake; Daphne sericea for the Gole del Sagittario; Laurus nobilis along the Mollarino and the Melfa: Euphorbia characias near Pizzone and San Donato Val di Comino; Cistus creticus subsp. eriocephalus and Cistus salviifolius near Rocchetta al Volturno and

in the lower Lazio side; Ferula glauca near Pizzone and Castel San Vincenzo; Arbutus unedo near the Campanaro cave Lake, etc.We also have to notice, besides, that the Mediterranean quota exceeds 20% of the flora but the most important is represented by the Eurasians (over 30%) and this is easily explained by the fact that the Park’s territory is mostly constituted by big beech woods and by forest vegetation in which the nemoral species are numerous. The Boreals are well-represented given the mountain character of the area.The interest of this flora is given, in addition to its importance, especially by the percentage of endemics that reaches 5.6% (this percentage takes only into account the Italian endemics whereas the subendemics are excluded).In addition to the notable phytogeographic interest that they take on, such species have a great importance from the management point of view, as conservation activities are firs and foremost concentrated toward them.We recall that the endemic plants are those which are exclusively found in a particular territory and characterize it. An endemic plant of Abruzzo can only be found in this region and not elsewhere in the world.Other endemic plants have been described especially for the Park like Iris Marsica, Ranunculus marsicus, Alchemilla marsica, Geranium ustroapenninum,Centaurea

cannensis. We need to add one recently described: Pinguicula vallis-regiae, a punctiform endemic of the Camosciara that takes its name from the medieval toponym of “vallis regia” that indicated the upper Sangro valley and from which derives also the name of Barrea.Even though the Park’s flora is well-studied, new entities still have to be discovered and the ceaseless developments in systems theory and taxonomy change and improve our rules of classification. Most of the described entities may become synonymous, while others may be described and recognised as autonomous. This happens also in the most studied territories and more often than the layperson can imagine.

* Università di Camerino


park, insects and biodiversity

A mong all the living organisms present today on the Earth, the result of

three billion years of biological evolution, two species out of three are insects. This simple number, 1.2 million insect species out of 1.8 of all the living species (viruses, bacteria, fungus, seaweeds, superior plants, protozoans, animals), gives us an immediate idea of the importance of this animal group in the Earth’s economy, of the insects’ weight on the functioning of the ecosystems in which they take part and of the importance of their biodiversity indicators.The diversity in the insect species derives from their long and complex evolutionary history, started around 400 million years ago, with the terrestrial adventure of a small group of arthropods and continued by three big “evolutionary explosions” that happened in the Carboniferous period, in the Permian and in the Jurassic, which confirmed its success, up to the richness of species now attested. Therefore the great diversity of insect species can be interpreted as the result of the biggest success in adaptive radiation that has happened in the biosphere. But this diversity is not obviously distributed in a homogeneous way on land. In general, the diversity of species is higher in warm and humid areas of the earth, in the intertropical regions, and increases with increasing latitude. At parity of surface, some areas particularly rich in species constitute “local diversity centres”, which often coincide with “focal points” of territorial structures or of resource concentration. This geographic areas have been described

as a « hot spot » of biodiversity. In Italy, the highest diversity areas, especially remarkable through insect study, are the Ligurian and the Maritime Alps, Sardinia, Sicily, and the central Appennines. The territory of the National park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise matches exactly with one of the most important naturalistic areas of the central Appennines.So the first question could be: how many are the insects in the Park?Today our country has the complete checklist of its own fauna, and the “Cheklist of the Italian fauna species” lists around 57,500 animal species. Among them, 37,000 are insects. Roughly, extrapolating the population data of better-known groups, it is possible to estimate that the number of insect species present in the Park area corresponds to a variable percentage, according to the different groups to be considered, between 20% and 50% of Italian fauna, which leads to a prudent global estimate of at least 8-12,000 species.To give some examples, I could refer to faunistic research that I did myself, with students and colleagues, in the Park territory for many years, studying some more significant insect groups from the biogeographic and ecological point of view. Among them, the Carabid Beetles are a particular indicator of environment quality: they are predatory insects, which live on the ground (or in the ground), with a strong “substrate fidelity” and with strong phenomena of endemisation and relictuality represented by a very high number of species, especially in the temperate areas,

relatively well-known at the systematic and chorologic level and very sensitive to environment changes. The Carabids population of a particular area often seems to repeat, especially at a historic level, the basic lines and the characteristic aspects of the entire population living in the same area.In Europe, around 3,600 species are known, and in Italy more than 1,340, which is the highest number among the European and Mediterranean countries.A quick look at the distribution of their specific diversity highlights how 390 species are present in the central Appenine Mountains. More than 250 of them are present in the Park (almost 20% of the Italian fauna), whereas in the other mountainous groups this number fluctuates between 110 (Sibillini Mount, Laga Mount), 180 (Gran Sasso) and 210 (Simbruini and Ernici Mounts, Maiella Massif ), with values that don’t seem in relation with the level of knowledge, as far as the territorial structures and the geographic location of the area itself is concerned. The datas of the “Biodiversity Project” reported, already at the end of 1996, a very high number of species: 336 vertebrate species and 3,400 insect species, almost 10 times as many. But this number, which actually represents around 10% of the insects of the Italian fauna, can increase rapidly with the continuation of faunistic research and of the taxonomic checklists, which it’s necessary and urgent to realize, so that we are able to avoid that entire communities, more complex and sensitive,

by Augusto VIGNA TAGLIANTI *

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can disappear before even being known and protected. Other groups of the utmost importance are the Orthoptera (crickets, grasshopper, earwig) and the Lepidoptera Rhopalocera (diurnal butterflies), well-known insects, easy to observe and to recognize, and that’s why the data are sure enough thanks to recent research. In 2004 a work on the Orthoptera of the Park was published,in which 84 species are reported (out of around 420 of the entire Italian fauna): just a few years before, in the lists of 1995 and 1996, only 48 were known (more than 40% less). The same for the Lepidoptera Rhopalocera: in a recent work of 2008, 136 species are reported for certain for the Park (that corresponds to around half the Italian fauna, which counts around 270 species).For the diurnal butterflies too, in the lists of 1995 and 1996, only 96 appeared, almost 30% less. The study of the fauna in the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise and particularly of the least famous, but more numerous, of the insect species that characterize it, confirms the very high naturalistic value,

the faunistic and zoogeographical richness, the high percentage of endemic and relic species, the great biodiversity deriving from its complex paleogeographic and paleoclimatic history and from its actual territorial structure, complex too.Located in the centre of the Italian peninsula which is itself in the centre of the Mediterranean area, its naturalistic, historic, geographic and climatic value may be unique. The National park of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise is fully aware of the meaning of “key area” for the understanding of the histories that determined the Italian and Mediterranean population, but currently it also takes the responsibility of the role of “key area” for the protection of values, like biodiversity, resulting from long evolutionary processes, that risk today being quickly compromised.And often, the insects, with their presence or their disappearance, give us the first alarm signals of environment changes, situations of decline, and climatic changes: signals that all of us must be able to interpret properly.

* Professor -Università di Roma “La Sapienza”

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TThe role of a National park is to protect the naturalistic, landscape

and traditional heritage of a territory of utmost importance, to provide a suitable environment for animal and plant populations in harmony with human settlements.This system, in constant evolution, is preserved in order to save the living heritage, precious and unique at the planetary level.However, another lesser known heritage exists kept by the Park: the past and recent testimonies of different organisms found in nature and preserved with care for scientific purposes. It is collections of stuffed mammals and birds, skeletons of vertebrates, different insects, preserved dried in entomological boxes, plant fossils and ancient and recent herbariums.This items come from the Park, from other Appennines areas, from other Italian regions or even from distant tropics. In Pizzone, the ornithological and mammalogical collections are preserved; they are around 450 stuffed specimens of mammals of the Park and Italian birds.The animals have been found dead in nature, some specimens come from faunistic areas of the Park whereas others have been offered. The specimens that are in the collection are: the Marsican Bear, the Appennine Chamois, the Wolf, the Badger, the Porcupine, the Wildcat, the Squirrel,

the Mole, the Hedgehog, the Eagle, the Kestrel, the Buzzard, the Owl, the Tawny Owl, the Grouse, the Heron, the Bittern, the Green Woodpecker, the Chough and many others.The osteological collection is formed by skulls, bones and assembled skeletons of the main mammals of the Park.The entomological collection is formed by around 600 entomological boxes and by more than 20,000 insects.Since the first years of the Park’s institution, passionate researchers have collected specimens of different insects, preparing them, studying them and classifying them. Thus small and big collections have been constituted; today some traces remain in the collection called “the historic collection” that goes back to the dawn of the Park, signed by renowned names like Luigioni or Santercole.Then, in the 50’s, a group of Roman entomologists dedicated themselves to systematic collection, giving birth to the Scarabaeoidea collection, of Giovanni Papini, given to the Park afterwards, and to the gathering of Chrysomelidae by Riccarso Bott, a collection given to the Park as well.In the successive generations, Augusto Vigna Taglianti has conducted research on the Carabid Beetles in the Park coming to the discovery of a new species and leaving a delegation of collected insects to the same institution. The collection of the Cerambycidae beetles of Giuseppe Pinzarias

too is currently kept by the library head office of Pescasseroli. In addition, an impressive exhibition of exotic Beetles with reddening elytrons is currently preserved inside the Scientific Department, it is the historic collection Gestro-Beccari.There are not only Beetle collections, but also of Lepidoptera, collected by entomologists like Olivieri and Carlo Prola, which enhance the heritage of the Park, providing important data, published in famous scientific magazines.Thus other collections came, like the imposing Barajon, acquired and currently located in the Green Centre of Ortona di Marsi.From further research conducted on the Park territory, were added other collections like the one of around 51 specimens of spiders preserved in alcohol and identified by Marco Isaia.About 1600 specimens of freshwater molluscs have been given by Marcello Zampetti, currently preserved in the Park library.Concerning the plant kingdom, a small collection of musks and lichens, an herbarium of superior plants constituted by around 2925 leaves (2247 general herbariums and 678 specialist herbariums, whose collection started in 1947) and, finally, an ancient and precious herbarium from 1700 formed by 22 binders are preserved.

the park’s hidden treasures

di Paola TOLLIS *


The park also preserves a small collection of fossil plants of Bolca from the Eocene era. The testimony of these items represents the history of effort and passion of those who devoted their time to the study of nature. The scientific collections have always had the role of biodiversity archives; the collections of the Park are testimonies to that inside our own territory, the specimens preserved in the collections and the data associated, allow one to follow the evolutionary route of populations in time and in space. The collections with their specific references of location, date of collection and name of the finder, allow us to follow over time the species’ presence, their population density, their dislocations, their phenology, and their biological changes.The knowledge and the understanding of biodiversity is of utmost importance for an accurate policy of preservation and ecosystem management.The naturalistic collections are important resources for scientific research, whether pure (taxonomy, evolution, biogeography),

or applied (agriculture, public health).The naturalistic items are not “souvenirs of the past”, but they have current scientific validity for environmental study and preservation.There can be extremely rare species collected only one time and never foun again, or species that appeared unexpectedly coming from border areas or that have disappeared in mysterious circumstances, probably because of changes in microenvironmental conditions, or species of which we ignore the biological cycle.The naturalistic collections can describe nature, carry out an educational function for schools in their natural sciences lessons. The information can also be passed on through a simple exhibition of authentic items: a stuffed animal, a skeleton, a fossil, have a greater degree of reality compared to pictures printed in a book...One day, my son asked me: how big is a falcon? and what is the color of the Goshawk? is the bear’s pelt rough? and are the porcupine stings hard? Are the “stick”

insects real?It’s only by showing him and making him touch the specimens of the collections that I succeeded in satisfying his curiosity.The collections have an important role also in the museums’ mise-en-scene. Till 1800 only the objects were exposed in museums.In the 20th century, exhibition standards changed. At first, texts and pictures were added to the objects, then came the dioramas, that is, with the items, an environment was created; it is the dramatised representation of Nature, before the observation in the field.The exhibition standards evolve but the objects remain essential to show to the public.It is for all these reasons, in view of their value and especially of the rarity or uniqueness of some specimens, that the Park must preserve its own naturalistic collections and make these still hidden treasures available.

* Park’s Scientific dept.

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Natura Protetta - Speciale Biodiversià

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