- Torino, Piemonte, Italy
Research Interests: Biology and Scarabaeoidea
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Zoology, Biology, Medicine, French horn, Female, and 5 moreAnimals, Male, Beetles, Scarabaeidae, and Sex Characteristics
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Evolutionary Biology, Zoology, Biology, Evolution, Medicine, and 14 moreLanguage evolution and development, Female, Animals, Male, Biological evolution, Phenotype, Beetles, Sympatric Speciation, Ecosystem, Sympatry, Language Evolution and Development, Species Specificity, Population divergence, and Sex Characteristics
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Biology and Scarabaeidae
Research Interests: Biology and Scarabaeidae
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
... As suggested by the relative warp analyses of external body traits (Figs 57), the two species maintained very similar shape differentiation patterns between the two kind of polyphenic males. ... (1998), who showed that male genitalia... more
... As suggested by the relative warp analyses of external body traits (Figs 57), the two species maintained very similar shape differentiation patterns between the two kind of polyphenic males. ... (1998), who showed that male genitalia of 20 species of insects and spiders had ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Genetics, Zoology, Biology, Biological Sciences, mtDNA, and 5 moreThe, Scarabaeidae, Allopatric Speciation, Dung Beetle, and AFLP
Figure 2. Neighbor-joining (left) and maximum parsimony (right) consensus trees of mtDNA cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) sequences. Bootstrap values higher than 70% are shown on internal nodes. OF, Onthophagus fracticornis; OO,... more
Figure 2. Neighbor-joining (left) and maximum parsimony (right) consensus trees of mtDNA cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) sequences. Bootstrap values higher than 70% are shown on internal nodes. OF, Onthophagus fracticornis; OO, Onthophagus opacicollis; OS, Onthophagus similis. Specimens belonging to Onthophagus vacca and Onthophagus nuchicornis European populations were used as an outgroup (indicated as Palaeonthophagus spp. in the trees, courtesy of Dirk Ahrens).
Figure 1. Landmark configurations chosen for geometric morphometric analyses of head (first row, nine landmarks) epipharynx (middle row, nine landmarks) and paramere (last row, five landmarks). Left column: Onthophagus fracticornis;... more
Figure 1. Landmark configurations chosen for geometric morphometric analyses of head (first row, nine landmarks) epipharynx (middle row, nine landmarks) and paramere (last row, five landmarks). Left column: Onthophagus fracticornis; central column: Onthophagus similis; right column: Onthophagus opacicollis. For easier visualization, landmark configurations are reported only on specimens of O. similis.
Figure 6. Paramere, epipharynx, and head allometries. White triangles: Onthophagus similis; white circles: Onthophagus opacicollis; black circles: Onthophagus fracticornis. The centroid size of each landmark configuration (Fig. 1) is used... more
Figure 6. Paramere, epipharynx, and head allometries. White triangles: Onthophagus similis; white circles: Onthophagus opacicollis; black circles: Onthophagus fracticornis. The centroid size of each landmark configuration (Fig. 1) is used as an estimate of the size of each structure. Interspecific comparisons of slope and intercept are given in Table 4.
Coordinates of landmarks placed on each tibia specimen [12 randomly selected females per population analyzed: O. taurus (IT, IN, WA); O. illyricus (ILLY)]. Images available upon request
Research Interests:
Pronotum width (=body size) and tibia centroid size (CS) of 12 randomly selected females per population analyzed: O. taurus (IT, IN, WA); O. illyricus (ILLY)
Research Interests:
Pronotum width (=body size) of emerging offspring across layers of soil in native O. illyricus and O. taurus (Italy
Research Interests:
Brood ball (BB) mass produced by the parental generation across layers of soil in native O. illyricus and O. taurus (Italy
Research Interests:
Many dung beetle communities are characterized by species that share very similar morphological, ecological, and behavioral traits and requirements yet appear to be stably maintained. Here, we document that the morphologically nearly... more
Many dung beetle communities are characterized by species that share very similar morphological, ecological, and behavioral traits and requirements yet appear to be stably maintained. Here, we document that the morphologically nearly indistinguishable, sympatric, and syntopic tunneling sister species Onthophagus taurus and Onthophagus illyricus may be avoiding competitive exclusion by nesting at remarkably different soil depths. Intriguingly, we also find rapid divergence in preferred nesting depth across native and recently established O. taurus populations. Furthermore, geometric morphometric analyses reveal that both inter- and intraspecific divergences in nesting depth are paralleled by similar changes in the shape of the primary digging appendages, the fore tibiae. Collectively, our results identify preferred nesting depth and tibial shape as surprisingly evolutionarily labile and with the potential to ease interspecific competition and/or to facilitate adaptation to local climatic conditions
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Sixteen microsatellite loci were isolated and characterized for Varroa destructor using two procedures to screen genomic libraries. Together with those previously designed, they provide useful markers for the study of this harmful... more
Sixteen microsatellite loci were isolated and characterized for Varroa destructor using two procedures to screen genomic libraries. Together with those previously designed, they provide useful markers for the study of this harmful apicultural pest whose populations on Apis mellifera are poorly variable. Observed variability has been expressed as the number of alleles because heterozygosity is only rarely present. The defined primers have been assayed on another species of the same genus (V. jacobsoni) and almost half of them successfully cross-amplified and revealed polymorphism. These results suggest that the microsatellites isolated here should prove useful for population studies in different Varroa species.
Research Interests:
... Rite-nuto marginale dalla maggior parte dei biologi del dopoguerra e sospettato di essere una conces-sione al “neolamarckismo”, l'“effetto ... Questo tipo di approccio moderato all'evoluzione culturale è stato adottato per... more
... Rite-nuto marginale dalla maggior parte dei biologi del dopoguerra e sospettato di essere una conces-sione al “neolamarckismo”, l'“effetto ... Questo tipo di approccio moderato all'evoluzione culturale è stato adottato per esempio da Boyd e Richerson (1985), i quali provarono ...
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT Several thousand species of beetles evolved impressive, exaggerated horns or horn-like structures. The horn phenotypic patterns and the developmental mechanisms are well documented especially in the Scarabaeidae, the family most... more
ABSTRACT Several thousand species of beetles evolved impressive, exaggerated horns or horn-like structures. The horn phenotypic patterns and the developmental mechanisms are well documented especially in the Scarabaeidae, the family most predominated by species with horns. The regulation of horn expression appears to be extremely evolutionary labile to the extent that horn allometric patterns have been seen to rapidly diverge between closely related species. For this reason, it has been suggested that horn morphological pattern may be able to differentiate closely related and sibling species even when other traits fail. In this study, we used horn morphological pattern (shape and allometric variation) as a “tool” to evaluate the differentiation of two closely related scarab species, Copris klugi Harold and Copris sierrensis Matthews whose full species status has long been debated due to their high similarity. Combining traditional and geometric morphometric methods, we evidenced that male head horn phenotypic pattern is able to clearly differentiate C. klugi from C. sierrensis, supporting the hypothesis that they are two true species.
Research Interests:
Among beetles, thousands of species develop horns, the size of which is often extraordinarily disproportionate with respect to body size. The Scarabaeidae is the family in which horned species are most predominant, but other families,... more
Among beetles, thousands of species develop horns, the size of which is often extraordinarily disproportionate with respect to body size. The Scarabaeidae is the family in which horned species are most predominant, but other families, such as the Geotrupidae (dor beetles), also show remarkable horns, although in a more limited number of species. Horn expression mechanisms are well documented in Scarabaeidae but, despite the wealth of studies on this family, the horn morphological pattern of the Geotrupidae, to our knowledge, has never been investigated. In this paper, we describe for the first time the horn expression pattern in a dor beetle. As a study species, we chose Ceratophyus rossii, an Italian endemic dor beetle of the protected Mediterranean maquis in Tuscany, which shows remarkable head and pronotal horns in males and a notable cephalic horn in females. We identified and modeled shape and size horn patterns combining traditional and geometric morphometric approaches. We discuss the results in the wider landscape of developmental models described for other, more well-characterized, scarab beetles.