Cockroach (Blattodea, Blaberoidea) fauna of the Maltese Islands, with descriptions of two new species.

Cockroach (Blattodea, Blaberoidea) fauna of the Maltese Islands. Hitherto seven species of cockroaches were known from the Maltese Archipelago (Schembri 1980): four of them are synanthropic species introduced by man: Blatta orientalis, Blattella germanica, Periplaneta americana and Supella longipalpa; the remaining three are indigenous species: Ectobius kraussianus, Loboptera decipiens and Polyphaga aegyptiaca. The earlier reports almost exclusively concern the largest island Malta; only one report (L.

Genome analysis of the monoclonal marbled crayfish reveals genetic separation over a short evolutionary timescale.

The marbled crayfish (Procambarus virginalis) represents a very recently evolved parthenogenetic freshwater crayfish species that has invaded diverse habitats in Europe and in Madagascar. However, population genetic analyses have been hindered by the homogeneous genetic structure of the population and the lack of suitable tools for data analysis. We have used whole-genome sequencing to characterize reference specimens from various known wild populations.

DNA Taxonomy Confirms the Identity of the Widely-Disjunct Mediterranean and Atlantic Populations of the Tufted Ghost Crab (Crustacea: Decapoda: Ocypodidae).

The distribution area of the tufted ghost crab includes two widely separate sub-areas, i.e. the tropical and subtropical Atlantic coasts of Africa and Macaronesia, and the central-eastern Mediterranean basin.

Evolutionary history of the Maltese wall lizard Podarcis filfolensis: insights on the ‘Expansion–Contraction’ model of Pleistocene biogeography.

The expansion–contraction (EC) model predicts demographic and range contraction of temperate species during Pleistocene glaciations as a consequence of climate-related habitat changes, and provides a paradigm for explaining the high intraspecific diversity found in refugia in terms of long-term demographic stability. However, recent evidence has revealed a weak predictive power of this model for terrestrial species in insular and coastal settings. We investigated the Pleistocene EC dynamics and their evolutionary consequences on temperate species using the Maltese archipelago and its endemic lizard Podarcis filfolensis as a model system.