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Executive summary Handbooks for monitoring species and habitats of Community interest (Council Directive 92/43/EEC) in Italy: animal species The Habitats Directive requires Member States to implement surveillance of the conservation status of habitats and species of Community Interest. The aim of this handbook is to outline the methodological instruments for implementing a monitoring program of the Italian animal species, as required by art. 17, with particular reference to data collection at site level. The European guidelines require the assessments to be carried out by compiling information on specific parameters at biogeographical scale. For each animal species, four parameters have to be considered and combined to obtain an overall assessment of conservation status for each biogeographical region at national level: "Range" (based on actual distribution), "Population", “Habitat for the species” and "Future Prospects". Monitoring programs need to collect data dealing with the first three parameters at a local level. In this handbook, a monitoring form is presented for each animal taxon (species, subspecies or species group) of Community interest occurring in Italian terrestrial and inland water environments. Altogether, the volume contains 151 forms, referring to 215 terrestrial and inland water animal taxa. Further species, which will be reported in the IV National Report under a common name due to difficulties in recognizing them in the field or their doubtful status, are mentioned and discussed as well. Monitoring methods have been defined with the support of five national Scientific Societies, and reviewed by personnel of the Italian Regions and Autonomous Provinces. The monitoring forms thus report the most effective available techniques and provide an operational guidance for data collection and monitoring scheduling with the aim of standardizing data collection efforts across Italy. A standardized basis of information is indeed important for assembling data at national level and producing comparable assessments on the conservation status and future prospects of each animal taxon.

International audience; Aim Species richness is one of the commonest measures of biodiversity, and is a basis for analyses at multiple scales. Data quality may affect estimations of species richness, but most broad-scale studies do not take sampling biases into account. We analysed reptile richness on islands that have received different sampling efforts, and assessed how inventory completeness affects the results of ecogeographical analyses. We also used simulations to evaluate under what circumstances insufficient sampling can bias the outcome of biodiversity analyses. Location Mediterranean islands. Methods We gathered data on reptile richness from 974 islands, assuming better sampling in islands with specific inventories. We used Moran's eigenvector mapping to analyse the factors that determine whether an island has been surveyed, and to identify the relationships between reptile richness, geographical parameters and anthropic parameters. We simulated islands, mimicking patterns of true data, and sampled them with varying effort. Simulated richness was analysed using the same approach used for real-world data. Results The probability that islands were sampled for reptiles was higher in large, human-populated islands. The relationship between human impact and reptile richness was negative in well-surveyed islands, but positive in islands that had not been systematically surveyed, because densely populated and accessible islands receive better sampling. In simulations, analyses successfully retrieved the relationships between species richness and human presence only if the average species detection probability was ≥75%. Poorer sampling resulted in biased regression results. Main conclusions Human activities may strongly affect biodiversity, but human presence and accessibility improve sampling effort and thus the quality of biodiversity information. Therefore, regressing known species richness on parameters representing human presence may result in apparent positive relationships. These two facets of human presence (positive on biodiversity knowledge, negative on actual biodiversity) represent a major challenge for ecogeographical studies, as not taking them into account would bias analyses and underestimate human impact.

In order to improve the knowledge on amphibian fauna in Tunisia, about 300 water bodies belonging to different habitat typologies were sampled during the period 2004-2008. At the sites where amphibians were observed, we recorded the UTM coordinates, the altitude, and the following environmental features: habitat typology, hydroperiod, electric conductivity, temperature, water turbidity, and macrophyte coverage. The presence of the seven species currently known with certainty for Tunisia has been confirmed: Pleurodeles nebulosus, Discoglossus pictus, Bufo bufo, B. mauritanicus, B. boulengeri, Hyla meridionalis and Pelophylax saharicus. Conversely, no evidence on the occurrence of Salamandra algira in Tunisia, currently considered as doubtful, was collected. Furthermore, all the information available in the literature has been summarized and original data on distribution ranges, breeding phenology and habitat features of the observed species are reported; in particular, the first data on the ecology of the poorly known Pleurodeles nebulosus are provided. Present work represents a contribution towards the realization of an extensive atlas of Tunisian amphibian fauna to be used as a management tool for the conservation of Tunisian inland waters and their biota.

A new endemic gecko of the genus Hemidactylus is described from Socotra Island (Yemen). It is a rupicolous species characterized by: medium-large size (SVL up to 60 mm), back with large trihedral, raised, strongly keeled tubercles intermixed with small granular scales, males with 6-10 preanal pores arranged in two short rows separated by 2-3 scales. In East Africa, Arabia, the Middle East and India the only other tuberculated Hemidactylus with preanal pores arranged on two separate rows is the Somali H. granchii Lanza, 1978, which differs for the comparatively deeper and shorter head, the nostril separated from the first upper labial, less preanal pores, less upper and lower labials, more tubercles at midbody and more lamellae under the inner toe., Acta Herpetologica, Vol 4 No 1 (2009)

Aim: Analyses of biogeographical patterns and macroecology of islands require large datasets reporting the occurrence of species. The Mediterranean region is a biodiversity hotspot, which hosts a large number of reptile species and has been the focus of many studies. Nevertheless, comprehensive inventories describing the features and biodiversity of these environments are lacking. We gathered a dataset summarizing data on reptile distribution on islands of the Mediterranean basin and Macaronesia, also including detailed information on the geographical features. Location: Islands from the Mediterranean Basin, the Atlantic Ocean within the Mediterranean biogeographical region, and Macaronesia (Canary and Savage Islands, Azores, Madeira and Cape Verde). Time period: Present. Taxon: Reptiles (squamates and turtles). Methods: Initially, we developed a geographical database describing islands of the study region, then gathered information on reptile occurrences from 757 bibliographical sources, including atlases, published papers and the grey literature. Through a critical review of these sources, we also obtained information on the status of populations (native, island endemic or non-native) and on the reliability of occurrence data. Results: We obtained basic geographical information from 1875 islands covering the whole study region and with a very broad range of geographical features. We gathered >4150 records of reptile occurrence on islands, referring to 198 taxonomic units (species or species complexes); information on population status was available for 84.9% of records. Data are provided as comma-delimited text files. Main conclusions: The database provides a key resource for biogeographical analyses and can also serve as a backbone for conservation studies. The availability of a large database on island features can also be useful for biogeographers working on other taxonomic groups. Nevertheless, more data are required for some geographical areas, in order to ascertain the status (e.g., native vs. non-native) of many populations and to understand the interplay between natural and human-driven processes.

The analysis of biogeographical structure and patterns of endemism are central topics of biogeography, but require exhaustive distribution data. A lack of accurate broad-scale information on the distribution of reptiles has so far limited the analyses of biogeographical structure. Here we analysed the distribution of reptiles within the broad-sense Western Palearctic to assess biogeographical regionalization using phylogenetic and non-phylogenetic approaches, identified areas of endemism and evaluated the environmental factors promoting community uniqueness and endemism. We gathered distributional records from the literature and from the field, mapping the distribution of all the Western Palearctic reptiles on a 1-degree resolution grid. βsimdissimilarity and hierarchical clustering was used to identify bioregions, analysing data both at the species and at the genus level, and considering phylogenetic dissimilarity. Consensus areas of endemism were identified on the basis of the optimality criterion. We then assessed whether biogeographical structure is related to present-day climate, insularity, orography and velocity of climate change during the Late Quaternary. The genus-level analysis identified five main biogeographical regions within the Western Palearctic, in partial agreement with previous proposals, while the species-level analysis identified more bioregions, largely by dividing the ones identified by genera. Phylogenetic bioregions were generally consistent with the non-phylogenetic ones. The strongest community uniqueness was observed in subtropical warm climates with seasonal precipitation and low productivity. We found nine consensus areas of endemism, mostly in regions with limited velocity of Quaternary climate change and warm subtropical climates. The biogeographical structure of Western Palearctic reptiles is comparable to what has been observed in other vertebrates, with a clear distinction between the Saharo-Arabian-Sindian and Euro-Mediterranean herpetofaunas. Unlike other vertebrates, in reptiles the highest uniqueness and endemism is observed in dry climates, but the velocity of climate change during the Quaternary remains a major driver of endemism across all the vertebrates.

Aim The incompleteness of information on biodiversity distribution is a major issue for ecology and conservation. Researchers have made many attempts to quantify the amount of biodiversity that still remains unknown. We evaluated whether models that integrate ecogeographical variables with measures of the effectiveness of sampling can be used to estimate biodiversity patterns (species richness) of reptiles in remote areas that have received limited surveys. Location The Western Palaearctic (Europe, Northern Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia). Methods We gathered data on the distribution of turtles, amphisbaenians and lizards. We used regression models integrating spatial autocorrelation (spatial eigenvector mapping and Bayesian autoregressive models) to analyse species richness, and identified relationships between species richness, ecogeographical features and large-scale measures of accessibility. Results The two regression techniques were in agreement. Known species richness was dependent on ecogeographical factors, peaking in areas with high temperature and annual actual evapotraspiration, and intermediate cover of natural vegetation. However, richness declined sharply in the least accessible areas. Our models revealed regions where reptile richness is likely to be higher than currently known, particularly in the biodiversity hotspots in the south of the Arabian Peninsula, the Irano-Anatolian region, and the Central Asian mountains. An independent validation data set, with distribution data collected recently throughout the study region, confirmed that combining accessibility measures with ecogeographical variables allows a good estimate of reptile richness, even in remote areas that have received limited monitoring so far. Some remote regions that support very rich communities are covered very little by protected areas. Main conclusions Integrating accessibility measures into species distribution models allows biologists to identify areas where current knowledge underestimates the actual richness of reptiles. Our study identifies regions requiring future biodiversity research, proposes a novel approach to biodiversity prediction in poorly studied areas, and identifies potential regions for conservation.