Note on Dolichosoma (Dolichomorphus) femorale Morawitz, 1861 (Coleoptera, Melyridae, Dasytinae): taxonomy, anatomy, distribution and presence in Italy

Subgenus Dolichomorphus is transferred from Psilothrix to Dolichosoma. these two genera have been defined based on aedeagical characters rather than on external ones. Dolichosoma (Dolichomorphus) femorale, the only one species belonging to Dolichomorphus (previously a Psilothrix), is now included in genus Dolichosoma. D. (D.) femorale has been re-described, its Euro-Asiatic distribution has been detailed with several new localities reported, emphasis being given to its presence in Italy. A determination key is proposed for the three Dolichosoma species present in Mediterranean Europe.

The Saharo-Canarian Circle: The forgotten Prehistory of Euro African Atlantic façade and its lack of eastern demic diffusion evidences

Canarians, North Africans and Iberians show a close genetic relatedness. Greeks have a Sub-Saharan gene input according to HLA and other autosomic markers. Also, there is a genetic kinship between both Atlantic Euro Africans and North African/Arabic people. This is concordant with a drying humid Sahara Desert, which may have occurred about 6,000 years BC, and the subsequent northwards emigration of Saharan people may have also happened in Pharaonic times. This genetic input into Atlantic and Mediterranean Europe/Africa is also supported with Lineal Megalithic Scripts in Canary Islands (as well as in Iberia) together with simple Iberian semi-syllabary rock inscriptions both at Canary Islands and Ti-m Missaou (Algeria, Central southern Sahara). Lineal African/European scripts are found in certain languages scripts like Berber/Tuareg, Iberian, Runes, Etruscan, Bulgarian (Sitovo and Gradeshnitza, 6,000 years BP), Italian Old Scripts (Lepontic, Venetic, Raetic), Minoan Lineal A and Vinca scripts (Romania, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, about 4,000 years BP). The possibility that Megalithic Lineal Scripts have given rise to these languages lineal writing is feasible because admixture of languages rock scripts and Megalithic Lineal Scripts have been found. Thus, resistance of Canarian aborigines (Guanches) to Carthage, Rome and Arabs left a bulk of Canarian-Saharan information which is used to study both Saharan and Canarian Prehistory, and also Atlantic and Mediterranean beginning of European and other civilizations: this preserved prehistoric inheritance may be named the “Saharo-Canarian Circle” of prehistoric knowledge. Also, linguistics-epigraphy, physical anthropology, archaeology, and domesticated cattle shows a close North Africa-Iberia Mesolithic/Neolithic relationship and demonstrates that the demic diffusion model does not exist in Iberia. Also, Tassili Sahara paintings of domesticated cattle appear 1,000 years before those agricultural practices started at Middle East. Finally, it is also inferred that circum-Mediterranean contacts during thousand years between ice and desert constructed Mediterranean cultures from Canary Islands to Ancient Great Persia and this is the origin of Classical Mediterranean cultures that was later exclusively attributed to Rome and Greece.

Identification of sentinel plant species for evaluating phytotoxicity of veterinary antibiotics in mediterranean europe

Background Antibiotics used to treat livestock species enter agricultural fields when they are excreted by grazing animals or are present in manure that is added to fields as fertiliser. In the European Union, the potential effects of such antibiotics on terrestrial plants must be evaluated following the standardised OECD 208 method, which specifies the crop and wild species that should serve as “sentinels” for assessing antibiotic exposure. The present study aimed to compare this approved list of sentinel species against crop and wild plant species actually present in agricultural and pasture lands in Mediterranean Europe in order to identify the most appropriate sentinel plants for the region. The study focused on Spain as a region representative of Mediterranean Europe. Georeferenced layers for wild plant species and cultivated areas (crops), livestock density and land cover were combined, and then selection criteria were applied, leading to the identification of sentinel crop species for agriculture and pasture scenarios. Results In the agriculture scenario, the sentinel crop species were barley, wheat, corn, sunflower, dried pie, alfalfa, vetch, oilseed rape and sugar beet; the sentinel wild species were Papaver rhoeas, Galium aparine and Chenopodium album. In the pasture scenario, sentinel wild species were Bromus tectorum, Agrostis capillaris, Trifolium pratense, Lotus corniculatus and Galium aparine. The following common weed species in field boundaries or in pasture lands also emerged as potential sentinel species for risk assessment, even though they are not listed in the OECD 208 method: Sonchus oleraceus, Avena sterilis, Dactylis glomerata, Hordeun murinum and Lolium rigidum. Conclusions The sentinel species identified in this study may be useful in risk assessment procedures covering Mediterranean Europe. The method developed for this study could be useful for identifying sentinel species for other geographical areas.

A coin hoard from Ayasuluk and the arrival of silver gigliati from Mediterranean Europe in early 14th-century western Anatolia

In 1972 a hoard of eight fine silver coins was discovered in or near the baptistery of the basilica of St John in Ayasuluk. It is now conserved at the Ephesus Archaeological Museum in Selçuk. The coins were minted in southern France, southern Italy and on the island of Rhodes, between ca AD 1303 and 1319 or perhaps a little later. Accordingly, a concealment date of ca 1320 or a bit later is proposed. While the currency which they represent (the gigliato) is well known from other finds of the area, the present hoard is relatively early and from a particularly significant location. This currency found great success in commercial contexts in the eastern Aegean and western Anatolia during the period ca 1325 to ca 1370. By contrast, this study reveals two initial phases in the establishment and further dissemination of the gigliato in a concentrated part of western Anatolia, one in 1304 and another before and after ca 1317. On both occasions the Catalans were instrumental in shaping these processes: initially as conquerors on behalf of the Byzantine emperors and then, from their new base in Greece, as allies of the Aydinogullari rulers of Ayasuluk. Additionally, it is proposed that this new gigliato currency might have been minted at Rhodes from the summer of 1319, after which it rapidly reached the Ephesus area in a military context.