WBA

What is the destiny for the forests of our planet?

With the aim of remembering that 2011 has been declared by United Nations “International Year of Forests”, the World Biodiversity Association, the Library “A. Frinzi” of the University of Verona and the Unicef Committee of Verona, promote a round table on the theme “The destiny of the forests, between biodiversity and sustainability”. The meeting will be in Verona, to the University Library “A.Frinzi”, in Verona, 20 San Francesco Street, at 5.00 p.m. Friday 30 september 2011, and it is organized in collaboration with the Accademia Mondiale della Poesia and the Comitato Dante Alighieri of Verona.
Since decades, the distruction of the tropical forests of our planet has no slowdown at all. Every year more than 100.000 square km of forests are destroyed, causing, according to the biologists, the extinction of thousands species. The safeguard of biodiversity, therefore, entails the conservatuion of the tropical forests. The brazilian anthropologist Marcia Theophilo, an internationally renowned poetess, running to the Nobel Literature Prize, is involved in actions to awaken public opinion to these problems. Since many years she is a witness of the destruction of the Amazonian forest and of the native cultures of South America. Marcia Theophilo will be the honor guest of the event.
CONFERENCE CONTRIBUTIONS
“The forests’ guardians” by Marcia Theophilo, anthropologist and poetess, running to the Nobel Literature Prize.
“2011, International Year of Forests: save forests to defend biodiversity” by Gianfranco Caoduro, Chairman of WBA.
“The communitarian and national policies on biodiversity conservation” by Davide Gaeta, Professor of Food Processing and Wine-producing Marketing to the University of Verona.
“A sustainable approach to the land use: protocols and certifications for building Biodiversity Friend” by Alessandro S. Carone, teacher of Building Construction and Unicef delegate.
All members and citizens are invited to participate to the event.

The first volume of WBA Monographs is in printing!

The first volume of the new series WBA Monographs: “Le piante di Francesco Calzolari” is finally in printing. This prestigious work has a great scientific and historical value and is the fruit of a very long labour of our member prof. Daniele Zanini who, with this volume, pays homage to Francesco Calzolari and to his plants. The book is dedicated to the precursor of the veronese naturalism and represents the definitive recognition of the value of Calzolari as naturalist, as well as chemist. The spirit that animated Calzolari in his herborizations on the “botanical mountain” lives again, intact, in the rigorous and meticulous analysis of Zanini of over 450 plants enumerated by Calzolari in “The Travel of Monte Baldo of the Wonderful City of Verona” of 1566, preserved in his Theatrum Naturae, cited in his epistles and used in his famous Theriaca. Each one of these species is furnished with a report with historical, botanical and pharmacological informations.
This work can represent also an important instrument in evaluating the environmental modifications elapsed in the last centuries in the veronese region, through a comparative analysis between the plants living in the sixteenth century and the ones living today in this territory. The changes, often caused by man, can help us in understanding how important is to consider these aspects in the the land-use planning, before realizing changes of great impact on the environment.
In spite of the unexpected difficulties in finding funds to publish this prestigious volume, printed by Cierre Grafica of Verona, WBA and the Scientific and Editorial Committe of the Association have firmly supported the new Project and want to thank the Institutions that in various ways contributed to the publication of this book, in particular, the Regional Committee for the celebration of the fourth centenary of the death of Francesco Calzolari, the Municipality of Ferrara di Monte Baldo and the Accademy of Agriculture Sciences and Letters of Verona.

Take a look to Le Piante di francesco Calzolari!

Posted by admin on agosto 31st, 2011 | No Comments Posted in news, WBA books

New subtribe, new genus and new species of Carabid beetle from Bulgaria!

Our members Pier Mauro Giachino and Dante Vailati have recently published on the review ZooKeys (2011; 117: 59–72) a very interesting issue that describes a new genus and a new species of Coleoptera Trechinae from Bulgaria. The article: “A new remarkable subterranean beetle of the Rhodopes: Paralovricia gen. n. beroni sp. n. belonging to Lovriciina new subtribe (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Trechinae, Bembidiini)”, has been realized in collaboration with Borislav Guéorguiev of the National Natural History Museum of Sofia (Bulgaria).
Secondo gli autori, the new genus belongs, together with the already known genera Lovricia Pretner, 1979 and Neolovricia Lakota, JalÅ¾iÄ‡ & Moravec, 2009 to the new subtribe Lovriciina, that is described and discussed in the work. The specimens of Paralovricia beroni, a sole male and a sole female, were collected in two different caves of the Western Rhodopes (Bulgaria). The male holotype is deposited to the National Museum of Sofia, the paratype female in the collection od Pier Mauro Giachino.
In the opinion of the authors is very probable that P. beroni, just like most known Anillini, is not typical cave-inhabitant. It lives, probably, in the deep network of microcaverns and cracks, from where penetrates accidentally into people-accessible caves. This can explains why the specimens are extremely rare.
This interesting new species is dedicated to one of its collectors, Dr. Petar Beron, famous bulgarian biospeleologist, former Director of the National Natural History Museum of Sofia and former Vice-President of the Bulgarian Parliament. Our congratulations also to him, for the impulse given in the last decades to the knowledge of the Bulgarian subterranean fauna.
See entire article

Posted by admin on agosto 27th, 2011 | No Comments Posted in news

Great results of scientific researches in Greece supported by WBA

Double, rewarding result for WBA and, in particular, for our members Pier Mauro Giachino and Dante Vailati. The first result concerns the naturalistic expedition “Greece 2011”, made in the context of the WBA Project “Research Missions in the Mediterranean Basin”. The investigations made in May and June, in particular in the subterranean environment, gave impressive results with the discovery of 19 new species of specialized Coleoptera Carabidae and Cholevidae!
In addition to this important result, in the last days a monograph has been published with the results of the decennial research campaigns of our members in Greece. In the work titled “Review of the Anillina of Greece (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Bembidiini)” Giachino and Vailati made the revision, for Greece, of a group of endogeous Carabid beetles: the Anillina. The Authors describe 27 new species and a new genus to science, almost tripling the 15 species until known from Greece!
The work, published on the new series “Monograph” of the “Biodiversity Journal” is the first and weighty fruit of the collaboration between WBA and Edizioni Danaus, which signed an agreement in the last May with the objective of favouring the publication and free diffusion of the scientific researches in the field of natural sciences to encourage, most of all among young people, the study and conservation of biodiversity in Italy and in the world. An excellent result that confirms the importance of the support of World Biodiversity Association to the scientific field research and the publication of the results of these researches.

Posted by admin on luglio 29th, 2011 | No Comments Posted in news, WBA books

Entomological expedition to Turkey

In the second half of May 2011 our members Marco Uliana and Roberto Rattu performed a naturalistic expedition to South-Western Turkey, aiming in particular to the field sampling of Glaphyrid beetles and of other phytophagous Scarabaeoidea.
Field activities were carried out over 50 stations, mainly distributed along Taurus Mountains and the coastal strip. They allowed to gather a noteworthy amount of specimens (now under study), which will contribute to the ongoing taxonomic and faunistic studies Marco Uliana is conducting on Glaphyridae. This family of beetles (commonly known as the bumble bee scarab beetles) counting only two Italian species, but very rich of species in the Near East. In this region taxonomic as well faunistic notions about these beetles are still defective, as pointed out by continuous updates in recent years.
During a short visit to the natural beach of Pamucak, few kilometres from the Ephesus archaeological site, several specimens of the small rhino beetle Temnorhynchus baal (Dynastidae) were collected on the sand. This is the first evidence for the presence in Anatolia of the genus Temnorhynchus, which is represented in the western-Mediterranean area by two species, but counts some 30 species in the Ethiopic region.
During the expedition, supported by WBA, were collected also abundant samples belonging to other beetle families. A part of this material is already under study by specialists, some of which are WBA members.

Posted by admin on luglio 27th, 2011 | No Comments Posted in news

Published the Third Volume of the WBA Handbook “The Subterranean Environment”!

Our members Pier Mauro Giachino and Dante Vailati are the authors of the new volume of the series “WBA Handbooks” titled: “The subterranean environment. Hypogean life, concepts and collecting techniques”. This book is dedicated to their decennal studies on subterranean biology that, like no other discipline of naturalistic investigation, can offer to whom is involved very deep emotions, terrible fatigues and that “joy of discovery” that feeds the research.
The authors review the structure of an ecosystem and of its epigean and hypogean parts, defining uniquely some physical, chemical, and climatic constituents that are fundamental for understanding subterranean communities. They discuss the factors that led, for decades, to an ill conceived emphasis on the importance of human-size caves as the natural seat of “cave-dwellers”, paying special attention in defining the subterranean environment and of its limits, with some of its different components (fissure network of the bedrock, Milieu Souterrain Superficiel, cave and subterranean hygropetric environment), compared to the endogean environment that is characteristic of the soil, by restricting the use of the term subterranean fauna only to the hypogean environment, with the exception of the endogean environment. Similarly, the relationship between the fauna and the fissure network of the bedrock, and the influence of bedrock and tree cover on MSS formation and colonization are more clearly defined. The authors describe in detail the methodology and techniques used in their multi-annual research on the subterranean fauna in Greece, that allowed them to discover hundreds of new species to the science.
The persons concerned may have more information on the volume and buy it directly in the section “Publications-Books”. Like for all our books, WBA members will have a discount of 30%.

Read the recension of the Società Entomologica Italiana

Posted by admin on settembre 5th, 2010 | No Comments Posted in news, WBA books

W.B.A. Bulletin n. 6 – september 2009

Finally, a new number of our newsletter “WBA Bulletin”, has been published. In this number are shortly presented the more recent naturalistic expeditions of our members, the editorial activities and the programmes of the next events (in particular of the Ninth Biodiversity Day, in Treviso).
An invitation to the WBA members and supporters to send us comments and/or news for the next number of W.B.A. Bulletin expected for next spring 2010.