The presence in Sicily of Apis mellifera populations, which are clearly distinguished from those of mainland Italy for the uniformly dark colour of their tegument, is known since a long time and was repeatedly reported yet in the 19th century. Grassi issued a paper on this topic in 1881 without defining in any way the taxonomic status of these populations nor putting forward a name to denote them. In 1896, Dalla Torre included the binomial Apis siciliana in his catalogue with reference to Grassi’s description published in 1880; the latter paper is presently untraceable and several clues suggest that it is the case of the 1881 paper misquoted. The specific name siciliana, under Grassi’s authorship and relative either to 1880 or to 1881, has been used by most of the later reviewers of the systematics of the genus Apis to describe the black Sicilian honey bees, which are now regarded as an A. mellifera subspecies. In Italy, on the other hand, the binomial Apis sicula, which was proposed by Montagano in 1911 and reinstated by Ruttner in his 1988 review, was more popular. However the species name sicula had been already used in combination with Apis by Rossi in 1792 to name the mason bee now called Chalicodoma sicula and it is therefore unavailable. Applying the provisions of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature the correct scientific name for the Sicilian subspecies should therefore be Apis mellifera siciliana Dalla Torre 1896.

The black Sicilian honey bee: a nomenclatural clarification

MANINO, Aulo;
2010-01-01

Abstract

The presence in Sicily of Apis mellifera populations, which are clearly distinguished from those of mainland Italy for the uniformly dark colour of their tegument, is known since a long time and was repeatedly reported yet in the 19th century. Grassi issued a paper on this topic in 1881 without defining in any way the taxonomic status of these populations nor putting forward a name to denote them. In 1896, Dalla Torre included the binomial Apis siciliana in his catalogue with reference to Grassi’s description published in 1880; the latter paper is presently untraceable and several clues suggest that it is the case of the 1881 paper misquoted. The specific name siciliana, under Grassi’s authorship and relative either to 1880 or to 1881, has been used by most of the later reviewers of the systematics of the genus Apis to describe the black Sicilian honey bees, which are now regarded as an A. mellifera subspecies. In Italy, on the other hand, the binomial Apis sicula, which was proposed by Montagano in 1911 and reinstated by Ruttner in his 1988 review, was more popular. However the species name sicula had been already used in combination with Apis by Rossi in 1792 to name the mason bee now called Chalicodoma sicula and it is therefore unavailable. Applying the provisions of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature the correct scientific name for the Sicilian subspecies should therefore be Apis mellifera siciliana Dalla Torre 1896.
2010
93
103
105
Manino A.; Longo S.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2318/99296
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