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{ "pk": 63009, "title": "Lights in the Mediterranean night: firefly distribution in Italian islands revealed through citizen-science and scientific field-work", "subtitle": null, "abstract": "<p><span style='font-size: 11.0pt; font-family: \"Times New Roman\",serif;'>Islands represent living laboratories for investigating biodiversity and animal colonization patterns. Despite this, many insect groups remain poorly investigated in these systems, particularly within the Mediterranean Basin. Fireflies (Coleoptera, Lampyridae), besides their ecological, cultural, and conservation relevance, are no exception. Here, we present the first comprehensive synthesis of firefly occurrence across major and minor Italian islands, integrating standardised nocturnal surveys conducted within the L.U.C.E. (“Lighting up the understudied charismatic fireflies of Europe”) project with validated citizen-science records derived from the iNaturalist platform. This integrative approach enabled a complete assessment of species occurrence, spatial patterns, and the complementary value of structured fieldwork and citizen-generated records. Surveys were conducted in Italy between 2023 and 2025 across two major islands (Sardinia and Sicily) and thirteen small islands. Occurrence data were analysed to quantify taxonomic richness, island occupancy, and the relative contributions of each data source across islands. Overall, we recorded 10 taxa (including species and subspecies) on Italian islands, representing 50% of the firefly species currently recognised at the national level. Species richness and record abundance were significantly higher on larger islands. In contrast, small islands generally hosted one or two taxa, reflecting classic island biogeography patterns and limited dispersal abilities linked to firefly life-history traits. Comparison between data sources revealed a strong complementarity. Citizen-science records provided broad spatial coverage, particularly on easily accessible and frequently visited islands, but often lacked fine taxonomic resolution. Conversely, targeted surveys yielded fewer records overall but were essential for detecting poorly known populations, achieving accurate species-level identification, and documenting rare or previously unrecorded taxa. Notably, the detection of <em>Lampyris pallida</em> on Linosa, confirmed through DNA barcoding, represents the first record of this species for Italy.</span><!--EndFragment--></p>", "language": "eng", "license": { "name": "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0", "short_name": "CC BY 4.0", "text": "Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.\n\nNo additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0" }, "keywords": [ { "word": "Island biogeography" }, { "word": "Lampyridae" }, { "word": "biodiversity monitoring" }, { "word": "nocturnal insects" }, { "word": "iNaturalist" }, { "word": "conservation ecology" } ], "section": "Special Section: Citizen Science in Biogeography", "is_remote": true, "remote_url": "https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6656w1tv", "frozenauthors": [ { "first_name": "Alessandro", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Lagrotteria", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "CNR IRET", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Leonardo", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Ancillotto", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche, Istituto Di Ricerca Sugli Ecosistemi Terrestri", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Mariella", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Baratti", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "CNR IRET", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Malayka Samantha", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Picchi", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Luiz Felipe", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Lima da Silveira", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "Western Carolina University", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Francesco", "middle_name": "Paolo", "last_name": "Faraone", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "University of Palermo", "department": "Department of Biological, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies (STEBICEF)" }, { "first_name": "Federico", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Marrone", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "University of Palermo", "department": "STEBICEF" }, { "first_name": "Luca", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Vecchioni", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "University of Palermo", "department": "STEBICEF" }, { "first_name": "Giuliano", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Milana", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "Associazione Italiana Wilderness", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Pietro", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Di Bari", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "CNR IRET", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Damiano", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Fragalà", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "Università di Catania", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Lorenzo", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Lazzeri", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "Università degli Studi di Siena", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Leonardo", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Forbicioni", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "World Biodiversity Association Onlus", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Enrico", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Schifani", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC - Pompeu Fabra University)", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Dario", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Cioppa", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "Università di Bologna", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Andrea", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Guadagnini", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "Università di Bologna", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Danilo", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Pisu", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "Parco Nazionale Asinara", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Andrea", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Viviano", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "CNR IRET", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Martino", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Maggioni", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "Università di Palermo", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Elisa", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Serafini", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "Università della Tuscia", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Daniele", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Canestrelli", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Pietro", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Gardini", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "Università \"La Sapienza\" Roma", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Norma", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Lelli", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "CNR IRET", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Cristiano", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Spilinga", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "Studio Naturalistico Hyla", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Mattia", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Menchetti", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "University of Florence", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Carlo", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Polidori", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "Università di Milano", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Federico", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Somà", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "Università di Torino", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Manuel", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Scarfò", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "Università di Torino", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Raphael", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "De Cock", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "University of Antwerp", "department": "" }, { "first_name": "Emiliano", "middle_name": "", "last_name": "Mori", "name_suffix": "", "institution": "National Research Council, Research Institute on Terrestrial Ecosystems, Italy", "department": "" } ], "date_submitted": "2026-02-17T14:59:16.460588+03:00", "date_accepted": "2026-04-03T11:57:31.414684+03:00", "date_published": "2026-04-08T09:03:00+03:00", "render_galley": null, "galleys": [ { "label": "PDF", "type": "pdf", "path": "https://journalpub.escholarship.org/biogeographia/article/63009/galley/49389/download/" } ] }