Genetics and ecology of an island endemic from Pantelleria : Acheta pantescus (Orthoptera Gryllidae)

Abstract

The biology of the recently described stenoecious cricket Acheta pantescus is mostly unknown. This study includes an integrative systematics approach using ecology and barcode sequencing of the mtDNA NADH dehydrogenase subunits (ND1), the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) gene and the 16S ribosomal RNA region. A comparison with other species, including a discussion on the hypotheses about its origin, requires further work noting the lack of information currently available on GenBank. Two data loggers were placed at the Martingana locality, within the site where A. pantescus is known to occur and just outside it, to record temperatures and relative humidity; results show statistical differences between the area inhabited by the species and that immediately outside its habitat. Adults can be encountered between the end of April through to October; moreover, a broad range of life-cycle stages, from 1st instar to penultimate nymphal (sub-adult) phase were recorded in the month of May. Adults observed in May would have presumably been the result of eggs laid during the autumn and hatched around the latter part of February. Observations made during the night from a seacraft made it possible to identify locations on the island where the species is present, through its characteristic stridulatory ‘song’.