Scanning Electron Microscope observations on Luciola italica and Luciola lusitanica

Anna Bonaduce & Bruno Sabelli
Dept. Experimental Evolutionary Biology and Museum of Zoology,
University of Bologna

Due to the uncertainity in character discrimination between Luciola italica (Linnaeus, 1767) and Luciola lusitanica (Charpentier, 1825) a Scanning Electron Microscope analysis was undertaken. We choosed some structures the complexity of which seemed likely to offer a wider range of character states: the mouthparts, the pronotum and the copulatory system. Males specimens of the populations under investigation were collected from Bosco della Fontana (Marmirolo, Mantua) (L. italica) and the Parco Provinciale dei Laghi (Bologna) (L. lusitanica). Mouthparts exhibit the same structure and no qualitative characters distinguish the populations considered. The attempt to compare the ratio between the maximum width (MW) and the height measured in the middle (MH) of the high variable pronotum was unsuccesfully: the ratio appears to be not significant. Males of the two species under investigation were observed to have copulatory systems with the same structure and morphology. 
In summary none of the characters under study clearly differentiate between the two species investigated. This doesn’t mean that L. italica and L. lusitanica represent a single species, but that the discriminating characters of these two Italian populations are not significant. To answer the question: are L. italica and L. lusitanica the same species? it would be necessary to study morphological and molecular characters in specimens coming from populations of typical loci: Italy and Portugal.