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Monitoring of conservation status is an obligation arising from Article 11 of the Habitats Directive for all species of community interest. However, the development of monitoring methods for invertebrate species has received relatively little attention. Gomphus flavipes (Charpentier, 1825) and Ophiogomphus cecilia (Fourcroy, 1785) are two dragonfly species, listed in the annexes of the Habitats Directive, which suffered severe declines in the last century and have since recovered. Methods for the monitoring of these two gomphids have been proposed, but these have not been extensively tested and no abundance classes have been proposed for the evaluation of the conservation status of these species. A time-based standard sampling method is proposed for both species and results from numerous sites in Lombardy, northern Italy, are presented. Applying the standard method revealed that it is common for rivers that high water levels preclude sampling of exuviae through the summer and it is better to allow for two seasons when planning the monitoring. A further result is the fact that it was not always possible to sample the same stretches as the dynamic nature of the rivers and fluctuations in water level lead to some river banks becoming unsuitable for sampling during some visits. In these cases the time-based approach was advantageous, as the method did not need to be modified in response to the original bank section becoming unsuitable.

Diplacodes lefebvrii (Rambur, 1842) is a libellulid dragonfly, which is common and widespread in Africa and across the Indian Ocean. While this species is fairly common in the south and east of the Mediterranean, its European range is confined to Cyprus, the island of Rhodes and the south of the Iberian Peninsula. Here we report the first record of D. lefebvrii for Italy, which was captured near Cagliari (Sardinia) on 11.IX.2013. In October 2014, a population of the same species was observed at a small wetland on the island “Isola di San Pietro” (Sardinia). Here the observed sex ratio of D. lefebvrii was strongly biased in favour of females and only a single male was observed.

The LIFE project “MIPP” - Monitoring of Insects with Public Participation (11 NAT/IT/000252) is focused on selected insect species (five Coleoptera, three Lepidoptera, one Orthoptera), all included in the annexes II and IV of the Habitats Directive (HD) 92/43/EEC. One important aim is a citizen science initiative where every person may become a citizen scientist and collect faunistic data on the above species throughout Italy. Another objective of the project MIPP is the development of standard methods for monitoring the conserva- tion status of the five target beetle species. One innovative method employed is a sniffer-dog (“Osmodog”), trained to find the rare and endangered hermit beetle, Osmoderma eremita, which lives in veteran, hollow trees. The dog detects the strong smell of mature peach produced by adult males and an odor produced by the larvae. Another objective of the project MIPP is the dissemination of topics such as HD, Natura 2000, importance of dead-wood, Life projects, insect monitoring and conservation.