In Memory of Augusto Vigna Taglianti (1943-2019)
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Fragmenta entomologica, 51 (2): 105–125 (2019) eISSN: 2284-4880 (online version) pISSN: 0429-288X (print version) Obituary In memory of Augusto Vigna Taglianti (1943-2019) Giuseppe Maria CARPANETO, Marco Alberto BOLOGNA, Paolo AUDISIO, Maurizio BIONDI, Marzio ZAPPAROLI On the evening of June 7th, 2019, Augusto Vigna Tagli- 1982 became Appointed (tenured) Professor of Vertebrate anti died in Rome at the age of almost 76 years, after a Zoology and Entomology; in 1982 he won the Chair of long illness, tenderly assisted by his wife Giuliana. For- Entomology as Associate professor; in 1990 was finally merly a Professor of Entomology at the Sapienza Univer- appointed Full Professor. In the meantime, from 1988 to sity of Rome, he was a Full Member of the Italian National 1991, he also taught Zoogeography for Degree Courses in Academy of Entomology and of the National Academy of Biological Sciences and Natural Sciences. Sciences (the “Accademia dei XL”). In addition to these In the years of his youth, spent in the western Alps, academic qualifications, Augusto played a leading role in AVT received a rock-climber training and then became the world of amateur entomologists and naturalists on the an instructor of the Italian Alpine Club. Climbing ability whole, being animated by an inborn desire to participate in was useful for his future research activity, mainly for the the social life of the passionate lovers of insects, birds and zoological exploration of high mountain and cave ecosys- wildlife in general. For this reason he was member of sev- tems. Since 1958, he attended the activities of the Pied- eral naturalistic associations and became President of both mont Speleological Group and later those of the Roman the Italian Entomological Society and the Roman Associ- Speleological Circle, where he joined a maniple of young ation of Entomology. Owing to the wide spectrum of his enthusiastic persons interested in the study of the cave fau- zoological knowledge, he was also named President of the na (mainly Roberto Argano, Paolo Marcello Brignoli, Ma- Scientific Committee for the Fauna of Italy. rina Cobolli, Vezio Cottarelli, Valerio Sbordoni, Vincen- Augusto Vigna Taglianti (AVT) (Figs 1-3) was born zo Vomero, all on the road to become professional zoolo- on 25 June 1943 in Borgo San Dalmazzo (province of Cu- gists). Together with them, AVT participated to the explo- neo, Piedmont Region, NW Italy), at that time a middle- ration of the karst habitats of the Apennines and Sardinia, sized village, and always crossroads toward France, where then extended to other geographical areas where the ma- he lived until the transfer of his family to Rome in 1960, jor goal was the study of the still poorly known communi- where his father had gone to work in a notary’s office. He ties of caves, mountains and insular ecosystems. Thus, in studied at the classical high school, first in Cuneo and fi- the subsequent years, numerous expeditions were carried nally in Rome where he obtained the high school diploma out in several Mediterranean countries, the Near East and in 1961. Since he was a boy, he had an intense bond with Ethiopia. the mountains and, even after moving to Rome, spent long In the Seventies, after obtaining the Chair of Entomol- periods in peasant villages like Ferriere, in Val Stura (Cot- ogy Professor, AVT became an active organizer of scien- tian Alps), helping farmers and shepherds in their daily tific expeditions whose aim was to study insect diversity work. through the discovery of new taxa and their phylogenet- After settling in Rome, AVT enrolled at the Sapien- ic relationships, as well through the collection of data on za University, where he graduated in Natural Sciences in species distribution, phenology and habitat preference. It 1966 with honors, discussing a thesis on “Systematics, zo- was an exploratory and adventurous approach, often set in ogeography and ecology of the genus Niphargus (Crusta- difficult environments and hard geopolitical contexts (Bal- cea, Amphipoda)”. During the subsequent years he won a kans, Anatolia, Middle East, North Africa, Somalia, etc.), research grant in Zoology and met a girl, Giuliana Garda- where the enthusiasm for the continuous discoveries ani- no, who did the same in Botany. They married in 1968 and mated the hearts of his young collaborators (Paolo Audi- gave birth to two children, Michela and Pietro. sio, Marco Alberto Bologna, Maurizio Biondi, Giuseppe The entire university career of AVT took place at the Maria Carpaneto, Marzio Zapparoli), often joined by sen- Sapienza University of Rome from 1966 to 2013, when ior amateur and professional entomologists such as Sandro he retired. After graduation, he received research grants Bruschi, Achille Casale, Fabio Cassola, Pietro Omodeo, from the University of Rome and the Ministry of Educa- and others. tion; since 1971 he was Voluntary Assistant and then As- The scientific production of AVT consists of 415 pub- sistant Professor of the Chair of Zoology; from 1972 to lications (see list below), mostly represented by articles 105 Carpaneto et al. Fig. 1 – Augusto Vigna Taglianti (2008). Fig. 2 – Augusto Vigna Taglianti with Ciàn, his loved dog (1994). Fig. 3 – Augusto Vigna Taglianti in Morocco, High Atlas Mountains (1996). 106 In memory of Augusto Vigna Taglianti on international and national scientific journals or multi- Carabidae of Europe, published in 2004 and updated in authored books. The research subjects of these scientific 2010 on the initiative of the author himself. papers are systematics, biogeography and ecology of three Besides the taxonomic and biogeographical revisions taxonomic groups: Coleoptera Carabidae (sensu lato), of many groups of Carabidae, AVT and his collaborators Dermaptera and Crustacea Amphipoda. (e.g. Paolo Bonavita e Stefano De Felici) carried out some The production of AVT on amphipods started with his interesting studies (some still unpublished) on the compo- Degree Thesis and continued in the first two decades, then sition and phenology of ground beetle communities inhab- decreased in the Third Millennium. On the whole, it deals iting various habitat types, from Mediterranean forests, with 20 articles, mostly written in collaboration with San- like xerothermic and mesophilous oaklands, up to beech dro Ruffo, at that time Director of the Natural History Mu- forests, coniferous stands, mountain and high grasslands. seum of Verona. Three new genera have been described in In addition to the articles dedicated to single taxonomic the mentioned papers: Ilvanella (from Elba, Italy), Gam- groups, AVT devoted himself to write several articles of maropisa and Parhadzia (both from Anatolia). Several general interests, such as the methods of biogeographi- new species of the genera Niphargus, Bogidiella and In- cal analysis. A first innovatory approach consisted in the golfiella were discovered in Mediterranean countries and definition of biogeographical units within the Italian fau- Central America (see below the list of all species and taxa na, based on numerical criteria: it was written by Cesare described by AVT). Baroni Urbani, Sandro Ruffo and AVT in 1978, by using The production of AVT on Dermaptera (25 articles) three model animal groups (Cicindelidae, Carabidae and mainly dealt with the Italian earwigs, in order to fill the Chrysomelidae). Many years later, together with a large gaps in their geographical and ecological distribution, with group of younger collaborators (included also the authors the scope of writing the volume of the Italian Fauna se- of the present article), AVT promoted an open discussion ries. After his retire, AVT started to write this book but he on the corotypes of the Western Palearctic Region, where failed in this intent because of the worsening of his illness. each specialist compared the distribution patterns ob- The new species he described belong to the genera Forfic- served in the species of his taxonomic group with those re- ula, Chelidurella and Esphalmenus, from Africa, Turkey ported by other specialists for other groups. This compara- and Ecuador respectively. tive approach produced a synthesis on distribution models The major part of the AVT scientific research was which may apply to all the terrestrial organisms (Vigna et dedicated to Coleoptera Carabidae (sensu lato), with 170 al. 1992 and 1999). Another general paper was dedicat- articles on the taxonomy, zoogeography and ecology of ed by AVT (in collaboration with M.A. Bologna) to the ground beetles. He had a special interest in the subterra- cave fauna of the Ligurian Alps, including all the Metazo- nean species, e.g. the Trechini and Sphodrini tribes. He an taxa, the first step for a future review of the cave fauna was an intimate follower of the French entomologist René of the Western Alps. Jeannel (1879-1965), enlightened by the biogeographi- Several valuable manuscripts written by AVT still re- cal scenarios theorized by this author. He described many main in the drawers of his laboratory and/or in the direc- species of Duvalius and Trechus from Mediterranean and tories of his computer. It deals with taxonomic works (es- Near East countries, Doderotrechus from Western Alps, pecially on Trechini), checklists of carabid beetles of im- Lessinodytes from Eastern Pre-Alps, Guizhaphaenops portant geographic areas (Greece, Turkey, Namibia etc.), from China, Mexanillus, Chiapadytes e Mayaphaenops and ecological studies on Italian communities of ground from Mexico. Among his most interesting papers, we re- beetles. Some