Range Expansion

The paper provides new records and a critical review of the previous citations of Lethocerus patruelis (Stål, 1855) from Italy. The status of the species in Italy, and whether its presence can be related to a recent introduction or to a natural westward spread, is discussed, but further observations are needed to assess its effective status in the country.
The dates of description for this species and of L. niloticus (Stål, 1855) are corrected, since they have up to the present time been incorrectly stated as 1854.

... Permissions & Reprints. Review. Carrying capacity, migration, and dispersal in Yellowstone bison. Glenn E. Plumb a , Corresponding Author Contact Information , E-mail The Corresponding Author , PJ White a , Michael B. Coughenour b and Rick L. Wallen a. ...

Data on range expansion of the typhlo- cybid leafhopper Eupteryx decemnotata Rey, 1891 in Europe are compiled. Until the mid 1980s the species was known only in Mediterranean regions of France and Italy, but during the last decade it has been found in Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, Greece, southern Britain and large parts of Germany. Invasion into most parts of

Chromogobius britoi is a recently described and poorly studied goby currently known only from the Macaronesian islands of Madeira and the Canarian archipelago. This species was captured for the first time on the Atlantic mainland coast of Europe (at Arra´bida Marine Park, Portugal). The habitat, depth preferences and morphological characters of the species are revised.

Western camel (C. hesternus) fossils are rare from Eastern Beringia, thus there is little available information on their chronology, paleoecology, and biogeography in this region. In August of 2010, a partial proximal phalanx of a western camel was recovered from a sedimentary exposure along the White River, in the formerly glaciated terrain of southwest Yukon, northwest Canada. The fossil specimen was recovered in situ from sediments that are correlated by stratigraphic, tephra and radiocarbon data to the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 interglacial period (Sangamonian). Associated paleoenvironmental data indicates that this western camel inhabited a shrub tundra ecosystem that did not include spruce trees or boreal forest during a relatively cold interval between MIS 5e and 5a. This is the oldest reliably dated western camel fossil from Eastern Beringia and supports the model of range expansion for this species to the high latitudes of northwest North America during the last interglacial (sensu lato).► This paper reports a new western camel (C. hesternus) fossil from Yukon, northwest Canada. ► The fossil is correlated to a relatively cold interval of the MIS 5 interglacial (∼87–115 ka). ► This is the oldest reliably dated western camel fossil from Eastern Beringia. ► Western camels migrated to the northwest extremity of their range during the last interglacial.

Human mediated biological invasions are seen as an increasing danger for biodiversity. On the other hand, range expansions are natural processes. It is often practically not possible to tell these processes apart, like in the case of the freshwater crab Potamon fluviatile. This species has a disjunct distribution on the Balkan Peninsula, Italy, Sicily and Malta. An innovative analysis framework involving phylogeographic model selection and temporal coalescent analyses on a mitochondrial dataset (COI and NADH1) could clarify that the origin of the species was on the Balkans and the colonisation of Italy proceeded from the northern Balkans via southern Italy in the Otranto Strait region. The population expansion associated with this invasion was estimated to have taken place 15,000 years before present (95% c.f. 10,000–24,000 years BP). An anthropogenic introduction is therefore implausible and a natural expansion likely. We argue that the species should thus be included in the national conservation management in Italy.

Isolation of Mediterranean species in the southern European peninsulas during the cold glacial phases often resulted in differentiation of several genetic lineages confined to the respective peninsulas. However, whilst there is good genetic evidence for multiple refugia in Iberia, there are only limited data available for the Balkans. Therefore, we wish to examine the hypothesis of a strong genetic structuring within southeastern Europe for the existence of multiple Balkan differentiation centres and/or several leading edges. As a model we use the marbled white butterfly, Melanargia galathea. We studied 18 allozyme loci of 564 individuals from 16 populations distributed over a large part of southeastern Europe. The single populations showed moderately high genetic diversity and no northward decline of genetic diversity was detected. The overall genetic differentiation between populations was considerable (FST 7.0%). Cluster analysis discriminated three genetic groups: (i) a western flank in the former Yugoslavia, parts of eastern Austria and Hungary; (ii) an eastern flank with populations from Bulgaria and Romania (south of the southern Carpathians and eastern Carpathians); and (iii) the eastern Carpathian Basin. Hierarchical variance analysis distributed 53% of the variance among populations between these three groups. One sample from the Greek–Bulgarian border clustered within the eastern flank, but showed some tendency towards the eastern Carpathian Basin populations. Two populations from Carinthia clustered together with the eastern Carpathian Basin ones and a population from Styria showed an intermediate genetic composition between the three groups. Most probably, the eastern and the western flank groups are due to postglacial range expansion from the northeastern and the northwestern edges of the glacial differentiation centre (so-called leading edges). The eastern Carpathian Basin group may have resulted from postglacial expansion from northern Greece through valley systems of the central Balkan peninsula, maybe even expanding westwards north of the Balkan mountains reaching some parts of eastern Austria (e.g. Carinthia). Therefore, the Balkanic refugium of M. galathea may or may not have been continuous along the coastal areas of the Mediterranean, but must have been strongly genetically structured.