page_title: Fauna of Italy
section_title: Invertebrates
hierarchical_section_title: Fauna of Italy / Invertebrates
caption_attribution_description: English: Mantis religiosa. Lisboa, Portugal. Français&#160;: Une Mante religieuse (Mantis religiosa). Lisbonne, Portugal.
context_page_description: Italy has the highest level of faunal biodiversity in Europe, with over 57,000 species recorded, representing more than a third of all European fauna. This is due to various factors. The Italian peninsula is in the center of the Mediterranean Sea, forming a corridor between central Europe and North Africa, and has 8,000 km of coastline. Italy also receives species from the Balkans, Eurasia, the Middle East. Italy's varied geological structure, including the Alps and the Apennines, Central Italian woodlands, and Southern Italian Garigue and Maquis shrubland, also contribute to high climate and habitat diversity.
context_section_description: The Italian fauna includes 56,213 species of invertebrates. This is 97.8% of the total species richness (the vertebrates are 2.2%). Of these 37,303 species (approximately 65%) are insects. The (recorded) species richness of the Italian fauna is certainly one of the highest in a European country. For insects (the best known in other countries as well and therefore allowing comparison) the species richness is the absolute highest (Minelli A., 1996).
  Northern Italy (Friuli Venezia Giulia, Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige, Lombardia, Val d'Aosta, Piemonte, Liguria, Emilia-Romagna) has 33,414 invertebrate species. Peninsular Italy (Toscana, Marche, Umbria, Lazio, Abruzzi, Molise, Campania, Puglia, Basilicata) has 24,297. This may be a faunistic gradient but less complete data are available for southern Italy and the biotopes are very different. ( Stoch F., 2004).
  Commonly seen insects in Italy are the sail swallowtail, the scarlet dragonfly, Cleopatra butterfly, European praying mantis, cicada, glow-worm, hummingbird hawk-moth, Italian stinkbug, firebug, field cricket, European hornet, cuckoo wasp, carpenter bee and the rose chafer.
caption: Praying mantis, a very common species
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