Annotated checklist of the Hemiptera Heteroptera of the Site of Community Importance and Special Area of Conservation “Alpi Marittime” (NW Italy)

ABSTRACT We provide the first annotated checklist of the Heteroptera (Insecta: Hemiptera) of the Site of Community Importance and Special Area of Conservation “Alpi Marittime” (IT1160056), based on literature records and unpublished material collected between 2012-2015 within two European projects in which the Alpi Marittime Nature Park was involved. The literature review provided a list of 62 species, recorded for the study area between 1884 and 1990, scattered in 14 papers. The new data here provided raise the total number of species occurring in this region to 208, grouped in 25 families and 135 genera. For each species reported in the catalogue, previous literature records, new data and the known distribution are provided. Among the most interesting findings, Salda henschii (Reuter, 1891) which was recently recorded for the first time in Italy, and Sternodontus obtusus Mulsant & Rey, 1856 which is rediscovered in the Piedmont region after more than a half century.


INTRODUCTION
The Maritime Alps region has been defined as a key area for understanding the dynamics that have shaped the fauna of the Italian peninsula as well as that of western Europe in general, and this is due to the peculiar faunistic diversity (Minelli et al. 2006). The reason for this extraordinary biodiversity is related to the particular biogeographical frame in which the area is located, between the mountain systems of Piedmont and Liguria regions and the Mediterranean Sea, straddling the border between the Mediterranean, Alpine and continental zones. In the NW part of Italy, the mountain chain peaks are located close to the seaside and this fact contributes to create very steep ecological gradients both in the northern Ligurian maritime slope and in the southern Piedmontese continental one. Moreover, the wide altitudinal range (650 to 3297 m a.s.l.) and the geological and glacial history of the area contribute significantly in making the Maritime Alps one of the most important European hot spots of biodiversity (Bonelli et al. 2015, Isaia et al. 2015. The Maritime Alps, the southernmost part of the Alpine chain, divide the Piedmontese plains from the Côte d'Azur and are between two very popular crossings since antiquity: the Colle di Tenda and the Colle della Maddalena. Both sides of the Maritime Alps are subject to protection: actually, on the French side, there is the Mercantour National Park; on the Italian side, the Alpi Marittime Nature Park. The two Parks border over 35 kilometers and together form a protected area of over 100 000 hectares. In the four-year period 2012-2015, different entomological research has been carried out, mainly by the first author, in the Site of Community Importance (SCI) and Special Area of Conservation (SAC) "Alpi Marittime" (IT1160056). Most of the material was collected within the framework of two different European projects. The "ATBI + M" (All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory + Monitoring) project, coordinated by the European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy (EDIT), funded in 2006 in the frame of the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Commission (Deharveng et al. 2015;Villemant et al. 2015). All Taxa Biodiversity Inventories (ATBI) are intensive community efforts to identify and record all living species that exist within a given area. The second was the Interreg ALCOTRA 2007-2013 "Gestione comune del paesaggio transfrontaliero delle Alpi Meridionali" ("Joint development of the cross-border landscape of the Southern Alps"). Further material from other collectors was also added.
This contribution represents the results of the research conducted mainly from 2012 and 2015 within the Site of Community Importance and Special Area of Conservation IT1160056 "Alpi Marittime" (IT1160056) and it also provides the first checklist of the Heteroptera for this area. Based on intense field activity and on an extensive bibliographic search, the work aims to increase the knowledge of the Hete ropteran fauna of this study area and to provide a basis for future studies of this group of insects.

Study area
The Site of Community Importance and Special Area of Conservation "Alpi Marittime" (IT1160056) (Fig. 1), located in the Cuneo province, is the largest protected area in Piedmont. It covers a surface of 33 673 hectares and includes the municipalities of Aisone, Entracque, Limone Piemonte, Roaschia, Valdieri, Vernante, and includes part of the Valle Stura (Demonte), almost all the Valle Gesso, the upper part of Valle Vermenagna (Colle di Tenda) end the upper Val Grande (Palanfrè). The altitudinal range goes from about 700 m to the 3297 m of the Maritime Alps highest peak, the "Cima Argentera". The habitats found in the area vary with the elevation: at the bottom of the valleys there are hardwood forests (mainly beech forests -Fagus sylvatica L.), followed by small spruce and larch forests; increasing the altitude we can find large areas of shrubs and bushes, and finally the open habitats of the higher areas are composed by grasslands, pastures and rocky lands. The history of the current protected area began with the unification of two protected areas instituted in 1979 and 1980: respectively, the "Parco Naturale dell'Argentera" and the "Riserva naturale speciale Boschi e Laghi di Palanfrè", this incorporation created the so-called "Parco Naturale delle Alpi Marittime" in 1995, covering a surface of 28 000 hectares. In 2010 there has been a new delimitation of the Sites of Community Importance and Special Areas of Conservation in the Piedmont region, and this has led to increase the authority of the Park, which now has been expanded to the whole surface included within the Site of Community Importance and Special Area of Conservation"Alpi Marittime" (IT1160056). In 2016, the "Parco Naturale delle Alpi Marittime" has been included in the "Ente di Gestione delle Aree Protette delle Alpi Marittime" (management body), which includes several protected areas, including the area studied in this work.
In this paper we consider all the territories within the SCI and SAC areas, including the "Parco Naturale delle Alpi Marittime". Considering their closeness to the study area, several localities cited in literature and falling just outside the borders, were also included in this work.
This research was mainly carried out in 10 sites (Table 1) located within the protected area. These areas consist on different macrohabitats: forests, grasslands and pastures, wetlands and aquatic environments. In Table 1 a description of the investigated areas is provided.

SourceS
The fieldwork was preceded by an extensive bibliography search. Neither for the Site of Community Importance, Special Area of Conservation"Alpi Marittime" (IT1160056), nor for the "Parco Naturale delle Alpi Marittime", a complete faunistic study of the Heteroptera has been carried out until now.
The main source used about Italian Heteroptera is the volume of the Fauna d'Italia by Servadei (1967). To date, though the volume is outdated, it represents the most complete bibliographic source about this group of insects for Italy. In order to identify any references reported for the territory taken into consideration by this search, we checked all the literature indicated by Servadei (1967) for "Piedmont". Then we consulted a hundred works, of which only 14 reported data locations falling within the borders of the Site of Community Importance and Special Area of Conservation "Alpi Marittime" (IT1160056). Most of the bibliographic data originated from general works; in particular, the first records came from Ferrari (1884), who reported data of specimens collected by G. and L. Doria and in one case reports "Alpi Marittime", although this is a doubtful record because we are not sure if the record fall within the protected area; however we decided to keep it in the list. Other old records come from Griffini (1893) who studied Pentatomidae Leach, 1815 and Coreidae Leach, 1815 of Piedmont region, including some data that fall within the current protected area; the last works about Heteroptera of the nineteenth century were those of Noelli (1897a;1897b), who contributed to the knowledge of this group with his studies on Reduvidae Latreille, 1807 and Lygaeidae Schilling, 1829 of Piedmont region. In relatively more recent years, there have been works who focused on the analysis of some families of Italian Hemiptera and included data for Piedmont (e.g. Tamanini 1951, 1956; others, like those of Mancini (1952Mancini ( , 1959Mancini ( , 1963, consisted of "Miscellanee Emitterologiche" with data from various Italian regions and, finally, a paper of Mancini (1963) on Heteroptera in Liguria, from which some useful data were found for Piedmont. In addition, two papers by Servadei (1955Servadei ( , 1957 on other Italian places provided records which can be attributed to the investigated area. Some records have been found also in the "Faune de France" volumes by Péricart (1972Péricart ( , 1983Péricart ( , 1987Péricart ( , 1990Péricart ( , 1999a. These are the main sources that gave most of the data.
The examination of literature provided, finally, a list of 63 species, scattered in 14 papers, published between 1884 and 1999.
In the list, in some sporadic cases, records of localities for which it was not clear if they would fall perfectly within the territory of the protected area were also added; these are very old records of the years prior to 1900. They were nevertheless considered, as it is most likely that they can actually fall in the territory concerned.
Some reports of Heteroptera regarding this territory were taken from the website of the European project ATBI (All Taxa Biodiversity Information), which was mentioned in the introduction (Deharveng et al. 2015;Villemant et al. 2015).
Finally, the examination of some old collections of the Museum of Natural History "Giacomo Doria" of Genoa allowed us to identify some unpublished data, which, once checked, have been reported in the list under the heading "unpublished data". In addition, the visit to this museum allowed also to locate the specimens related to some old published records for the investigated area, that it was possible to confirm or correct.
Nomenclature and systematic follow the "Catalogue of the Heteroptera of the Palaearctic Region" (Aukema & Rieger 1995, 1996, 2001, 2006Aukema et al. 2013), with the exception of the superfamily Lygaeoidea Schilling, 1829, for which we choosed to follow Henry (1997). The checklist, at infraorder level, follows the taxonomic arrangment of Schuh & Slater (1995). Superfamilies, families and species are, however, in alphabetical order. For each species, the unpublished data and bibliographic ones are shown. For the new data we provide the following information: data of locality, geographical coordinates (WGS84), altitude metres a.s.l. (when available), date of collection, collector, number of specimens, and the collection in which the specimens are deposited. For each species, its original name of description, with author, year and the page of description is given. Then we indicate the chorotype according to Vigna Taglianti et al. (1993Taglianti et al. ( , 1999, followed by a paragraph "Remark", in which additional information is provided, such as the presence of the species in Italy, if it is a new record for the study area or for Italy, ecological notes (e.g. host plants) or, in some cases, systematic notes.
Concerning the chorotypes, the Alpine one was not indicated in Vigna Taglianti et al. (1993Taglianti et al. ( , 1999, but we created it (eventually to abbreviate as ALPI) for the species Horwathia lineolata (A. Costa, 1852) and Acalypta visolensis visolensis Péricart, 1976, whose distribution range could not be associated with any of the categories mentioned in that paper.

Lygaeus simulans Deckert, 1985
Lygaeus  Chorotypes were assigned to the widely distributed groups suggested by Vigna Taglianti et al. (1993Taglianti et al. ( , 1999; endemic components and cosmopolitan/subcosmopolitan elements were considered separately and treated as two further groups.

GENERAL DISCUSSION
This paper provides the first annotated checklist of the Hemiptera Heteroptera of the Site of Community Importance and Special Area of Conservation "Alpi Marittime" (IT1160056).
With the present data, 146 species are added to the preliminary list obtained from literature, bringing the total number of Heteroptera species from 62 to 208, belonging to 135 genera and 25 families. The increase was, therefore, significant (230%). The family with the highest number of species is Miridae, with 90 species, which exactly reflects the proportion within Heteroptera at the Italian level; then Pentatomidae (20 spp.), Rhyparochromidae (15 spp.) and Lygaeidae sensu stricto (20 spp.). The other families include a lower number of species (< 10 spp.). Research on Hemiptera Heteroptera was also conducted in the adjacent Mercantour National Park and a database including 234 species exists (EDIT 2010). However, at the moment it is not possible to easily compare the two protected areas because of the difference of surface and habitats present on the two slopes of the Maritime Alps, and also for the different sampling efforts and techniques used.
Considerations on the heteropteran fauna of the Site of Community Importance and Special Area of Conservation "Alpi Marittime" follow. Concerning the aquatic component sensu lato, which comprises the infraorders Gerromorpha, Nepomorpha and Leptopodomorpha (see Polhemus & Polhemus 2008), in the study area the diversity is rather low for Gerromorpha (2 spp.) and Nepomorpha (3 spp.), while it is significant for Leptopodomorpha, with 9 species of Saldidae.
The cryophilic component, typically alpine (Arctocorisa carinata, Macrosaldula scotica, Saldula orthochila, Salda henschii) or less cryophilic, mainly distributed at high altitude (Gerris T u r a n o -E u r o p e a n S i b e r i a n -E u r o p e a n P a l e a r c t i c W -P a l e a r c t i c T u r a n o -E u r o p e a n -M e d i t e r r a n e a n E u r o p e a n -M e d i t e r r a n e a n W -E u r o p e a n S -E u r o p e a n E -M e d i t e r r a n e a n M e d i t e r r a n e a n C e n t r a l A s i a n -M e d i t e r r a n e a n C e n t r a l E u r o p e a n A s i a n -E u r o p e a n H o l a r c t i c A l p i n e S W -A l p i n e C e n t r a l A s i a n -E u r o p e a n S u b c o s m o p o l i t a n C e n t r a l A s i a n -E u r o p e a n -M e d i t e r r a n e a n A l p i n e -A p p e n n i n i c E u r o p e a n costae, Velia currens, Saldula c-album) are prevalent. There are also some eurythermic species (Sigara lateralis, Notonecta viridis, Saldula saltatoria) and other euryecious species, more common at low altitudes (Chartoscirta cocksii, Macrosaldula variabilis, Saldula arenicola, Saldula melanoscela) are present too. On the contrary, more thermophilic elements, typically Mediterranean (cf. Cianferoni et al. 2013), are absent. To confirm these results it is important to mention the absence of two very common aquatic species, also easily detectable: Hydrometra stagnorum (Linnaeus, 1758) from Gerromorpha, and Nepa cinerea Linnaeus, 1758 from Nepomorpha, that are most likely limited by the average low temperatures of the studied area. The altitudinal limit of such species in northern Italy is close to the lowest elevations present in the study area (cf. Bacchi & Rizzotti Vlach 2005. It is still possible that further research, especially at these altitudes, could led to their discovery in the studied area. Concerning Gerris costae two subspecies are reported in Italy: G. costae costae (Herrich-Schäffer, 1850) which tends to be more alpine, and G. costae fieberi Stichel, 1938 which lives at low altitude. Their taxonomic status and distribution, however, is not yet very clear (see Cianferoni 2011 for a bibliographic summary; cf. Damgaard et al. 2014). Studies were performed on mitochondrial DNA and small differences were detected between the two entities, but the issue has not yet been finally resolved (cf. Damgaard 2006;Damgaard et al. 2014). Therefore, we prefer to consider the species sensu Cianferoni (2011) without indicating the subspecies. Arctocorisa carinata is another typical alpine species. This taxon has a Boreo-alpine distribution, and has a Sibero-European chorotype (cf. Vigna Taglianti et al. 1993; the species has a nearly continuous distribution in northern Europe. There are also three isolated populations in the southern alpine regions, defined as glacial relicts: in the Pyrenees, in the Alps and in the Balkans (Jansson 1986). The species can be found in Italy throughout the Alpine region: Liguria, Piedmont, Aosta Valley, Lombardy, Trentino-Alto Adige, and Veneto (Mancini 1963, Bacchi & Rizzotti Vlach 2005 and there are some populations in the glacial lakes of the northern Apennines (Cianferoni & Terzani 2013). Although its occurrence would have been highly probable, this species had not been found yet in the Maritime Alps Nature Park.
Salda henschii was recently recorded for the first time in Italy (Cianferoni et al. 2017). This taxon belongs to a group of Saldidae which are strictly boreo-montane. It is mainly restricted to the mountains of central Europe, with some populations in southern Scandinavia; in the Arctic region the species is replaced by the congeneric Salda sahlbergi Reuter, 1875, which lives further north. The southern distribution limit of S. henschii was until now in Austria and Switzerland, with some apparently relict stations in the Alps (Lindskog 1991); its discovery in the Maritime Alps was completely unexpected and therefore rather exceptional. A closely related species, Salda littoralis (Linnaeus, 1758), is also present in Italy. Péricart (1990) writes that this taxon is present "seulement dans l'arc alpin, mais non dans les Alpes Maritimes" [= only in the alpine arc, but not in the Maritime Alps]. To date this species was not detected in the area, where it could be replaced by the congener S. henschii. Saldula orthochila is also an interesting species. The northern limit of its distribution is the Arctic Circle, while in the south it reaches the northern sector of the Mediterranean region where, however, is present only in the mountains (Péricart 1990). Therefore in Italy it can be considered as a typical alpine species.
An important endemic species found during this research was Dimorphocoris ruffoi Tamanini, 1971. It is an endemic Italian Miridae, confined to the Maritime Alps. The locus typicus (Tamanini 1971) is the Mount Mandolè (which falls outside the studied area), but it was found later, also near the Refuge Soria (Tamanini 1976), inside the protected area. It is a vicariant species with the similar Dimorphocoris gallicus Wagner, 1957, which lives in the near Mercantour National Park (EDIT 2010). Members of Dimorphocoris Reuter, 1890, because of wing polymorphism (winged males or sometimes wingless, and females always wingless) suffer of a remarkable isolation, especially in the Alps, where valleys and mountain ranges are often insuperable barriers.
Another Mirid that deserves to be remembered is Orthocephalus coriaceus (Fabricius, 1777). It was considered doubtful for Italy in the last published checklist (Faraci & Rizzotti Vlach 1995) and recently confirmed by Carapezza & Faraci (2005 and found also in the studied area after this entomological survey. This species was found in the investigated areas, with a few specimens, in an alpine meadow above the village of Palanfrè, at an altitude of about 1700 metres. Orthocephalus coriaceus is a widespread species throughout Europe, and it is also quoted for North Africa. It is typically found in open and xerophilous areas, where it feeds on several Asteraceae Martinov, 1820 and occasionally on plants belonging to families Lamiaceae Martinov, 1820 and Rubiaceae Jussieu, 1789. This insect attacks the leaves of the host plant, and also the stem, inside which it lays its eggs. It overwinters as egg, and adults begin to appear in mid-June, remaining active until late July-early August (Wagner 1970).
Dicyphus annulatus (Wolff, 1804) is another interesting species; it is a sporadic Mirid which lives in Italy in the northern regions: there are reliable data only for Piedmont, Lombardy, and Liguria (Dioli 1997), but its distribution needs to be confirmed after its separation from Dicyphus ononidis Wagner, 1951.
Among the remarkable taxa we can also count the Pentatomidae Sternodontus obtusus Mulsant & Rey, 1856. This species was until now considered rare in Europe, with a few specimens in reference collections, since for a long time its host plant has been unknown. Lupoli (1994) reports the discovery of its host plant, Laserpitium gallicum (Apiaceae), which hosts eggs, nymphs and adults. This finding allowed us to understand the difficulties previously encountered in finding this species. In particular: mimicry of nymphs and adults, which can be confused with the seeds of Laserpitium L., as both share the same brown coloration; feeding period of adults limited to only three weeks approximately, that is in the same time of the development of the host plant seeds, which represent their main source of food. Moreover, the production of seeds may vary between mid-June and mid-September depending on the areas, altitude and climate. During this study, Sternodontus obtusus was found for the first time in the summer of 2013. The discovery was made at Colle dell'Arpione (Valdieri), at an altitude of about 1750 metres. During the entomological survey in 2014 the research went on in the same area in order to confirm the presence of the species and gather new data, and two specimens were found. However, Laserpitium gallicum L., the host plant of this shield bug, has not been found in the investigated area. In that area was instead very abundant the Pig-Nut, Bunium bulbocastanum L. (Apiaceae), an heliophilous and mesoxerophilus plant typical of pastures and dry meadows on limestone substrate. Therefore it is very likely that this could be another host species for this shield bug. This observation, however, has still to be verified through further investigations. Sternodontus obtusus was reported for the South of France in the 1990s, while in Italy a small number of locations are known known: Cavriana in Lombardia (Péricart 2010) and San Giorio di Susa (P. Dioli, unpublished data); other findings cited in the literature (Servadei 1967; Péricart 2010) date back more than fifty years ago and several are very old records. For this reason, the data of Colle dell'Arpione (Valdieri) has to be considered of importance. Further research would be needed to check in detail the current presence of this species, in the studied area.
Among the species found, others deserve to be mentioned as they represent interesting entities of the alpine horizon: Geocoris lapponicus Zetterstedt, 1838 (Geocoridae) (Fig. 10) Some general considerations after the chorotype analysis can be done. The Maritime Alps, due to their geographical position relatively close to the sea, show a very important Mediterranean vegetation component. This condition occurs because typically Mediterranean vegetation "rises up" to higher altitudes (Gallino & Pallavicini 2000). Concerning the entomofauna, in particular the heteropteran component of the studied area, and in general of the Maritime Alps, it can be noticed that the continental component is prevalent, with several species having a Holarctic and European distribution, but it is important to highlight that there are also Mediterranean species (3), even if their number is much lower than that of plants. All the Mediterranean species belong to the Miridae family: the strictly Mediterranan species are Adelphocoris vandalicus (Rossi, 1790) and Pachytomella passerinii (A. Costa, 1842), whereas Closterotomus annulus (Brullé, 1832) is confined in the eastern Mediterranean.
Among the species previously cited, it is important to remark the presence of some endemic elements. First of all, Dimorphocoris ruffoi, an endemic of the Maritime Alps. Moreover, three endemics of the Alps are present, Stenodema algoviense (Schmidt, 1934), Acalypta visolensis visolensis Péricart, 1976, andHorwathia lineolata (A. Costa, 1852). Another endemic species is Velia currens, whose distribution includes the Alps and the Appennines, up to the mountains of Calabria, in Italy It is important also to remark the presence of three recently described mirid species -Dimorphocoris poggii Carapezza, 2002, Cremnocephalus matocqi Magnien, 2000, and Plinthisus heteroclitus Matocq & Pluot-Sigwalt, 2013, which are considered endemic for the Ligurian Alps.
In the examined literature further two species, that we decided not to include in the checklist, are quoted. The first case is Peirates hybridus (Scopoli, 1763), belonging to the family Reduviidae. This species was reported by Noelli (1897a) for the locality "Colle delle Finestre". It was not possible to verify whether it is a name which falls in the studied area, or if it refers to the same locality in the Susa Valley (Turin). Therefore, this species has been excluded from the list. The second doubtful case is related to Himacerus (Stalia) boops Schiödte, 1870, reported by Servadei (1957). There are no further records of this species for Italy, and we did not find it during the research. The records of the last century (Stichel 1959(Stichel , 1960, then quoted by Servadei (1967), were not confirmed by the following reviews (Faraci & Rizzotti Vlach 1987, Péricart 1987. They can be therefore interpreted as misidentifications: the record probably refers to Nabis flavomarginatus Scholtz, 1847.
A good knowledge of the biodiversity of a protected area plays a key role in the conservation of nature. Moreover, the development of faunistic studies and the elaboration of species checklists may help stakeholders in the management of natural resources in order to protect them. In this paper we showed the high Heteroptera biodiversity of the Site of Community Importance and Special Area of Conservation "Alpi Marittime", and we are confident that in this territory more species have still to be discovered.