Natural History Sciences. Atti Soc. it. Sci. nat. Museo civ. Stor. nat. Milano, 2 (1): 43-54, 2015 DOI: 10.4081/nhs.2015.221 Short communications Extinct or not extinct: the case of the Chalcides ocellatus (Squamata: Scincidae) population from the Park of the ex Bourbonic Royal Palace of Portici (Naples, Italy) Nicola Maio1*, Donato Mancini2, Marcello Mezzasalma1, Gaetano Odierna1, Agnese Petraccioli1, Francesco Nugnes3, Orfeo Lucio Antonio Picariello1, Fabio Maria Guarino1 Abstract - Here we communicate the finding of an adult of Ocel- Parole chiave: Chalcides ocellatus, Reptilia, Portici (Napoli), lated Skink, Chalcides ocellatus in the ex Royal Park of Portici, near specie acclimatate, estinzione. Naples, Italy. This finding is of particular interest because this spe- cies has been no longer reported in Portici for about twenty years, the only site so far documented in mainland Italy, where it was introduced from the mid-eighteenth century probably with animals from Sicily. The Ocellated Skink, Chalcides ocellatus (Forsskål, 1775) is a polytypic species widespread in North Africa Key words: Chalcides ocellatus, Reptilia, Portici (Napoli), accli- and Northeast Asia, West Asia and in some Mediterrane- mated species, extinction. an areas of Europe. In Italy it occurs in Sardinia, Sicily, their surrounding islands, and Portici, a little town near Riassunto - Nella presente nota comunichiamo la segnalazione Naples. The latter is the only documented site so far rela- di un adulto di gongilo, Chalcides ocellatus all’interno dell’ex Bosco ting to mainland Italy (Caputo et al., 2011, Guarino et al., Reale di Portici, in provincia di Napoli, Italia. Tale segnalazione rive- 2012; Guarino & Maio, 2013) and represents one of the ste un particolare interesse in quanto da circa un ventennio tale specie best known cases of acclimatization of a reptile species non veniva più segnalata a Portici, unico sito dell’Italia peninsulare finora documentato, dove probabilmente vi fu introdotta nella metà in Italy. del XVIII secolo con esemplari supposti provenienti dalla Sicilia. First Francesco Saverio Monticelli, Professor of Zo- ology and Director of the Zoological Museum of the University of Naples, reported the presence of Ocella- ted Skink in the lower part of the Royal Park of Portici 1 Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Napoli (Monticelli, 1902). He hypothesized that this species was Federico II, Complesso Universitario Monte Sant’Angelo, occasionally transported here along with the clods of ci- Edificio 7, Via Cinthia, 26, 8016 Napoli, Italia trus trees coming from Sicily, about from 1736, during E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], the building of the garden of the new Royal Palace (Maz- [email protected], [email protected] zoleni & Mazzoleni, 1990). Based on information provi- 2 Dipartimento di Agraria, Sezione di Biologia e Protezione dei ded by an old park’s keeper, afterwards Monticelli (1914) Sistemi Agrari e Forestali (BIPAF), Università degli Studi di reported that some individuals, called Palermo or Sicily Napoli Federico II, Via Università 100, 80055 Portici (NA), lizards, were deliberately introduced in the wood perhaps Italia E-mail: [email protected] with terraristic purposes since the park also included a 3 Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto per la Protezione menagerie with many exotic animals. Sostenibile delle Piante (IPSP), UOS di Portici (NA) Italy Via Anyway, the first documented record of Ocellated Università, 133, 80055 Portici (NA), Italia. Skink for the Campania Region and for mainland Italy is E-mail: [email protected] represented by a stuffed specimen stored in the Zoologi- * Corresponding author: [email protected] cal Museum of the University of Naples collected under the direction of Achille Costa. This specimen was caught © 2015 Nicola Maio, Donato Mancini, Marcello Mezzasalma, by Nicola Tiberi in 1863, from the lower side of the Royal Gaetano Odierna, Agnese Petraccioli, Francesco Nugnes, Park of Portici (formerly named Wood of Mascabruno, Orfeo Lucio Antonio Picariello, Fabio Maria Guarino today an Urban Park) (Maio et al., 2001a). From this da- Received: 20th January 2015 te onwards, this specimen was the subject of interest of Accepted for publication: 21st April 2015 many zoologists and a large number of Ocellated Skink were collected and donated to various Italian zoological 44 Short communications museums (Monticelli, 1902). Even today, in fact, several searches conducted by us in the 1998-2008, during the Italian museums possess specimens from Portici; in addi- period of maximum activity of the species, gave negative tion to those in the Naples Museum, other specimens are results (Maio et al., 2000, 2001b; Picariello et al., 2004; stored in the Museum of Entomology “Filippo Silvestri” Mezzasalma et al., 2008). dating back to Antonio Berlese, Professor of the Royal Hi- Here we report a new finding of an adult Ocellated gher School of Agriculture at Portici (Scaramella, 1985). Skink occurred in the Gussone Park on October 23th, Other specimens are located in the Regional Museum of 2014. The specimen was 114 mm snout-vent long; its tail, Natural Science of Turin, some of which were donated released by autotomy at the time of capture, measured by Mario Giacinto Peracca in 1868 (Tortonese, 1942; El- about 61 mm (Fig. 1). The color pattern, characterized ter, 1981), and in the La Specola Zoological Museum of by light dorso-lateral bands running from the head to the Florence (some dating to 1891, donated by Monticelli and tail root, suggests that this individual can be ascribed to Peracca) (P. Agnelli, pers. com.; Monticelli, 1914). the subspecies C. ocellatus tiligugu (Gmelin, 1789), wi- The discovery in the late nineteenth century of some despread from Morocco to Tunisia, in Sardinia, Sicilia juveniles and pregnant females which gave birth in capti- and Maltese archipelago). Soon after the morphometric vity, as noted by the same Monticelli (1914) confirms that analysis, the individual was released in the capture site the species was well acclimatized in the ex Royal Garden (Fig. 2) and the autotomized tail was fixed and stored in of Portici, colonizing its upper side (now named Gussone absolute ethanol for molecular analyses. Park). Nevertheless, in the second half of the twentieth The hiccup findings of Ocellated Skink in the ex Ro- century the Portici population of Ocellated Skink has un- yal Park of Portici in the course of the last three decades dergone a drastic decline due to unknown causes. Con- suggest that caution should be exercised in considering sequently, the presence of this species at Portici has been really extinct this species in this site. Probably the local repeatedly questioned in the last three decades. Moschet- population consists of a very small number of indivi- ti & Walters (1992) reported that the Ocellated Skink was duals and it is very localized to escape to the most of never observed in the course of faunal surveys from 1987 surveys. to 1991. Also Lanza & Corti (1993) reported that this rep- On the other hand we cannot exclude that the last tile was not found in Portici in recent years. In contrast, specimen has been, deliberately or accidentally, relea- during the last decade of the last century this species was sed in the sampling site. In fact, it is well known that this observed twice in the Gussone Park. An adult individual reptile is particularly sought by terrarium lovers, also was found dead in July 1993 and, in August of the fol- because it is easy to keep and breed in captivity (Daut & lowing year, a second adult male was found in the same Andrerws, 1993; Mudde & Bakker-Kaagman, 1995; Li site (Caputo et al., 1997). Afterwards, extensive field re- Vigni, 2014). Moreover, there are reports of individuals, Fig. 1 - Adult specimen of Chalcides ocellatus recently found at Portici (Naples). Natural History SCIENCES. ATTI SOC. IT. SCI. nat. MUSEO CIV. Stor. nat. MILANO, 2 (1): 43-54, 2015 45 likely escaped from captivity, in some regions of Italy Caputo V., Lo Cascio P., Turrisi G.F. & Vaccaro A., 2011 − (for example Puglia and Calabria). These are personal Chalcides ocellatus. In: Fauna����������������������������� d’Italia, vol. 45. Rep- communications by local naturalists that obviously need tilia. Corti C., Capula M., Luiselli L., Razzetti E. & to be confirmed. To conclude, further surveys are nee- Sindaco R. (eds.). Calderini, Bologna: 310-322. ded to better evaluate the size of the extant population Daut E.F., & Andrews R.M., 1993 − The effect of preg- of Chalcides ocellatus in Portici. In addition, molecular nancy on thermoregulatory behaviour of the vivipa- analysis, already in progress, on the last found indivi- rous lizard Chalcides ocellatus. Journal of Herpeto- dual as well on various specimens previously collected logy, 27: 6-13. in Portici, could provide useful information on the geo- Elter O., 1981 − La collezione erpetologica del Museo di graphic origin and the phylogenetic position of the Por- Zoologia dell’Università di Torino. Cataloghi, vol. 5. tici’s population. Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali, Torino. Guarino F.M. & Maio N., 2013 – Anfibi e Rettili. In: Li- sta Rossa dei Vertebrati terrestri e dulciacquicoli della Acknowledgements Campania. Fraissinet M. & Russo D. (eds.). Regione Authors wish to thank Paolo Neroni e Aniello Nigro Campania, Assessorato all’Ecologia ed alla Tutela (Dipartimento di Agraria, BIPAF, Università di Napoli dell’Ambiente. Industria Grafica Letizia, Capaccio Federico II) for technical support. Scalo (SA): 58-75. Guarino F.M., Aprea G., Caputo V., Maio N., Odierna G. & Picariello O. (eds.), 2012 − Atlante degli Anfibi e REFERENCES dei Rettili della Campania. Massa, Napoli. Caputo V., Guarino F.M., & Baldanza F., 1997 − A new Lanza B. & Corti C., 1993 − Erpetofauna italiana: “acqui- finding of the skink, Chalcides ocellatus in the ex sizioni” ed estinzioni nel corso del Novecento. Sup- Royal Garden of Portici (Naples, Italy). 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