Psathyrella cladii-marisci: A new species of Brittlestem Mushroom from Italy.

Brittlestems, Psathyrella, are a group of about 400 Mushrooms with hollow stems and thin caps. They are found in a wide variety of habitats, including dung, post-fire locations, the dead stems of larger herbaceous plants, and in one case, Psathyrella aquatica, completely underwater, the only known instance of a Mushroom (or any other Basidiomycote Fungus) fruiting underwater. Brittlestems are not generally edible, and consuming them can have unpleasant side-effects.

In a paper published in the journal Mycokeys on 16 May 2019, Giovanni Sicoli of the Department of Biology, Ecology and Earth Science at the University of Calabria, Nicodemo Passalacqua and Antonio De Giuseppe of the Museum of Natural History of Calabria and Botanical Garden, also at the University of Calabria, and Anna Maria Palermo and Giuseppe Pellegrino, again of the Department of Biology, Ecology and Earth Science at the University of Calabria, describe a new species of Brittlestem from the Botanical Garden at the University of Calabria.

The new species is named Psathyrella cladii-marisci, in reference to the Swamp Sawgrass, Cladium mariscus, the plant upon which it was found growing on cut culms (stems). This Fungus produces Mushrooms up to 3.5 cm in diameter, conical to convex when young, maturing to hemispherical or flat, and hazelnut in colour. 

A tuft of Cladium mariscus planted in a tank at the Botanical Garden of the University of Calabria, southern Italy (A), and first-sight features of Psathyrella cladii-marisci basidiomes at the base and in-between of remnants of excised culms of the plant (B). Sicoli et al. (2019).

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Fifteen confirmed dead as storm system sweeps across Italy.

At least fifteen people have died as a storm system swept across Italy and into Central Europe this week. The first fatalities occurred on Saturday 27 October 2018 at Crotone in Calabria, when a landslide hit workers carrying out emergency repairs to a sewer amid heavy rainfall, killing four. Landslides are a common problem after severe weather events, as excess pore water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and sediments, allowing them to flow like liquids. Approximately 90% of all landslides are caused by heavy rainfall. Further deaths were reported on Monday 29 and Tuesday 30 October, as storm surges hit ports around the coast, heavy rain and snowfall fell across the north of the country, and central regions were hit by high winds and tornadoes, one of which killed a man in the city of Terracina in Latina.

Flood hit shops in Venice this week. EPA.

In the Alto Adige (or Sud Tyrol) Region in the far north a woman was killed when a landslide hit her house in Trento, where a fisherman was found dead some hours after going to check on a boat on a nearby lake, and a volunteer firefighter was killed in a separate incident. In the northern Emilia Romagna Region a 63-year-old kite-surfer died after being thrown against rocks near Rimini on the east coast. In the Veneto Region a 61-year-old man died after his car was swept away by a flash flood another man died after being hit by a falling tree, and the city of Venice was hit by a three metre storm surge, causing extensive flooding. In Naples a 21-year-old student was killed by another falling tree.

 Landslide at Volterra in the Pisa Region of Italy this week. Twitter.

Problems continued later in the week, with a further four deaths reported on Thursday 1 November,  with two further deaths in Trento, a man who fell from a roof while carrying out repairs and another man who died after a falling tree hit his car, and in the Val D'Aosta Region when another tree fell on a car with an elderly couple inside, killing them both.

A yacht belonging to Piers Berlesconi (son of the former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi) that sank in Rapallo Harbour, Genoa, during a storm this week. Reuters.

Elsewhere this week a number of luxury yachts were destroyed in the port of Rapallo in Genoa, where a storm surge described as 'reminiscent of a tsunami' broke through a harbour break wall and drove them onto the shore, and a number of luxury cars bound for export to the Middle East were destroyed in a fire at the port of Savona, thought to have been caused by salt water getting into a car battery during flooding.

Flooding near the Colosseum in Rome on Tuesday 30 October 2018. AP.

Most storms form due to heating of air over the sea in tropical zones. As the air is heated the the air pressure drops and the air rises, causing new air to rush in from outside the forming storm zone. If this zone is sufficiently large, then it will be influenced by the Coriolis Effect, which loosely speaking means the winds closer to the equator will be faster than those further away, causing the storm to rotate, clockwise in the northern hemisphere and anticlockwise in the southern hemisphere.

 A road partially blocked by a wind-blown gazebo at Badia Prataglia in Tuscany. Arezzo Fire Brigade.

Whilst the high winds associated these storms is extremely dangerous, the real danger from such storms is often the flooding. Each millibar drop in air pressure can lead to a 1 cm rise in sea level, and large storms can be accompanied by storm surges several meters high. This tends to be accompanied by high levels of rainfall, caused by water picked up by the storm while still at sea, which can lead to flooding, swollen rivers and landslides; which occur when waterlogged soils on hill slopes lose their cohesion and slump downwards, over whatever happens to be in their path.

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Magnitude 5.3 quake in southern Italy kills at least one person.

On Friday 26 October at 1.05 am local time (11. 05 pm on Thursday 25 October, GMT), the United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 5.3 Earthquake at a depth of 3.8 km, roughly 5 km west of the small town of Morano Calabro, in the Calabria Region of southern Italy. This is a fairly large quake at a shallow depth, which leads to a high risk of damage and casualties, and this quake is known at the time of writing to have caused at least one death and damage to buildings over a fairly wide area.

The location of the 26 October Earthquake. Google Maps.

Italy is in an unusual tectonic setting, with the west of the country lying on the Eurasian Plate, but the east of the country lying on the Adriatic Plate, a microplate which broke away from North Africa some time in the past and which is now wedged into the southern margin of Europe, underlying eastern Italy, the Adriatic Sea and the west of the Balkan Peninsula. This, combined with the northward movement of the African Plate into Italy from the south, leads to uplift in the Apennine Mountains that run the length of the country, and makes Italy extremely prone to Earthquakes. 

Map showing the boundary between the Eurasian and Adriatic Plates in Italy. Columbia University.

Historically Italy has suffered a number of devastating Earthquakes that lead to large numbers of casualties, though in recent decades the country has made serious attempts to prevent this, with better warning systems and tighter building regulations, though the large number of historic buildings in Italy, which cannot easily be replaced (and any attempt to do so would be unlikely to succeed due to their high cultural value), meaning that the country is unlikely to be completely risk free any time soon.

This has been complicated by an ongoing series of corruption scandals in the Italian construction industry, and, alarmingly, the decision by a court earlier this week to gaol six leading Earth scientists for failure to predict a quake. It is unclear how this will affect Italy's future ability to deal with geohazards, as it is likely that scientists will refuse to participate in programs that might result in prosecutions. It is also rumored that a number of other scientists in related agencies have resigned their posts, either in protest or because they feel their positions have been to badly compromised by the implied loss of scientific freedom for them to continue.

See also Six Italian scientists gaoled for failure to predict Earthquake, Italian scientists face gaol over failure to predict Earthquake, Modena Plane hit by second major Earthquake, Earthquake on the Modena Plane, northern Italy and Earthquakes on Sciency Thoughts YouTube.

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New species of Flat Bark Beetle (Cucujidae) from the Calabria Region of Italy.

The Cucujidae, or Flat Bark Beetles, are medium-sized (6-25 mm), brightly coloured, Beetles found living under tree-bark on every continent except Antarctica, but commonest in the temperate Northern Hemisphere. They are carnivorous, targeting mainly other Beetles, and have been observed to resort to cannibalism when no other food is available.

In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 30 July 2012, a team of scientists led by Teresa Bonacci of the Dipartimento di Ecologia at the Università della Calabria, describe a new species of Flat Bark Beetle discovered in the Calabria Region while carrying out a review of members of the genus Cucujus found in Europe.

The new species is named Cucujus tulliae, in honour of the late Tullia Zetto, an entomologist at the Dipartimento di Ecologia at the Università della Calabria who passed away in 2010. The Beetles were gathered as larvae under the bark of fallen Calabrian Pine and Silver Fir trees in the Sila National Park in Calabria, and raised in captivity. They took eight months to mature, passing undergoing six molts before reaching adulthood. They only survived when the temperature was kept bellow 20℃. The adults are bright red Beetles, with black limbs, 11.2-12.5 mm in length. The species appears to be highly endemic (i.e. has a very limited distribution), and is therefore considered to be Endangered under the terms of the IUCN Red List.

Cucujus tulliae. Bonacci et al. (2012).

See also New Ommatid Beetles from the Mesozoic of China, Two new species of Rove Beetle from Zhejiang Province, China and New species of Bess Beetle from Guatemala.

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