The FCNP was established in 1993 and covers an area of 368 km², spanning the regions of Emilia Romagna and Toscana. The parks extends over an altitude range of 500 – 1660 m and can therefore be considered mountainous. Forests are the dominant habitat; more than one quarter of all FCNP is covered by beech forest, some of them of great conservation interest, such as Sasso Fratino Forest included in 2017 in the World Heritage Site by the UNESCO Commission (Viciani and Agostini 2009, Viciani and Alberti 2024). From a climatic point of view the area belongs to the temperate oceanic bioclimate and marginally, at lower altitude, to the temperate sub-Mediterranean bioclimate (Padula and Crudele 1988, Pesaresi et al. 2017). This Park has been involved in the national pollinator monitoring programme (D'Antoni et al. 2020), established by Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Sicurezza Energetica and Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale. Moreover, FCNP is also included as a focus site within the “National Biodiversity Future Center”, NBFC.

The present inventory updating is mostly based on a revision of hoverfly specimens deposited in the “Guido Grandi Collection” (University of Bologna) (Sommaggio 2010) and previously collected within FCNP. Most of the material (354 specimens) deposited in the “Guido Grandi Collection” was collected between 2003 and 2004 using Malaise traps. The traps were set from the first week of May to mid-August in 2003 and from the second week of May to end of July in 2004. Malaise traps were located in “La Lama Forest” (700-1275 m) (Fig. 1). In particular, the following localities were sampled: Fonte Cavalla, 1050 m; Pian della Saporita, 1051 m; Passo della Bertesca, 1275 m; Grigiole, 1003 m; Stazione Vetreria, 720 m; Stazione Prati (Casa Forestale Lama), 700 m (Fig. 1). The study was carried out with the permission and the contribution of the “Ufficio Territoriale per la biodiversità” (Corpo Forestale dello Stato, Pratovacchio, AR Province). A smaller part of the material deposited in “Guido Grandi Collection” (24 hoverfly specimens) was hand-collected between 1984 and 1997 by Guido Campadelli. All specimens are now preserved in the "Guido Grandi Collection", University of Bologna (acronym AMSUB).

Figure 1.  

FCNP map and the positions of Malaise traps in 2003/04 (in orange) and permanent transect sampled in 2023 (in red).

The more recent material was collected in 2023 in FCNP with an entomological net in two transects (250 m long), located in Monte Falco (average altitude of 1653 m) and Bucine (average altitude of 907 m) (Fig. 1). Monte Falco is in the section of the ridge between Toscana and Romagna where almost all the high-altitude meadows of the Park are concentrated. They consist of habitat 6230 of the Rete Natura 2000, with co-occurrence of habitat 4060, by the presence of Vaccinium spp. These open areas are surrounded by predominantly pure beech forests (habitat 9130). Bucine transect consists of a mixed forest of oak and hornbeam for about the first quarter of its path and the rest of the path is characterised by a continuum from mixed to pure beech forest, from lower to higher altitude. Then the transect continues in semi-natural pastures with the presence of shrubs (habitat 6210 in prevalence) and also some fruit trees, such as cherries and pears. The applied sampling method followed the protocol of the national pollinator monitoring programme to create baseline data for the evaluation of pollinator trends (D'Antoni et al. 2020). Two transects were selected to study the bee and hoverfly communities: each transect was monitored on one day each month, with surveys conducted every two hours throughout the day. The complete results of this research will be the object of another paper; here, preliminary data have been used to integrate the fauna of FCNP. Transects were visited from May to September 2023; each one was walked one day a month, every two hours from 9 am to 5 pm and they took around 45 minutes to complete. All hoverflies detected along the transect were identified in the field or collected for subsequent identification. Specimens collected and identified are preserved in the collection of FCNP identified with the label PNFCC (Collection of the Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona and Campigna National Park, deposited in Santa Sofia, province of FC).