GRIO
Gruppo di Ricerca sugli Insetti Ortotteroidei (GRIO)
WHO WE ARE
A large number of orders of insects that can be found in meadows or among hedges, often of great environmental importance and impact, are commonly grouped among the Orthoptera insects (or Polyneoptera).
In the Italian fauna, this group includes various forms: from the common crickets and grasshoppers (Orthoptera), to the mimetic stick insects (Phasmatodea), to the elegant mantises (Mantodea) more specialized in hunting, to the cockroaches (Blattodea) often feared for their possible impact on human health and activities, to the termites-cockroaches with a social life as complex as that of bees or ants, up to the extravagant earwigs (Dermaptera) commonly known as earwigs and embioptera (Embioptera) capable of producing elaborate silk tunnels similar to those of spiders.
GRIO was founded in 2003 with the aim of bringing together entomologists, researchers, students, and enthusiasts studying these insects in Italy. It is a meeting place where they can collaborate and exchange news, data, and observations, participate in meetings and conferences, conduct in-depth studies, and conduct scientific expeditions, with the aim of working together to improve knowledge of Italian Orthoptera. GRIO members currently conduct scientific research on the taxonomy and ecology of Italian and foreign orthopteran insects, describing new species or new aspects of their biology, and updating the Italian Wildlife Checklist (orthoptera) and the IUCN Red Lists (orthoptera and mantises) to promote their conservation. The group currently operates as an informal working group within the larger World Biodiversity Association.
PARTICIPATION
If you are a researcher or enthusiast interested in Orthoptera and would like to join the group, have any questions, or want to report a particular find, please don’t hesitate to contact us. You can become a member of the GRIO by registering with the WBA and specifying the working group you wish to join in the registration form. You can contact the group secretariat for specific information or to connect with the relevant specialists. Finally, you can participate in initiatives, public meetings, and citizen science research projects.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF ORTHOPTERS IN ITALY
Italy has a long scientific tradition, rich in contributions to the study of orthoptera insects. Particularly noteworthy are past scientists such as Achille Costa, Antonio Galvagni, Antonio Vallisneri, Baccio Baccetti, Domenico Cyrillo, Ermanno Giglio-Tos, Felice Capra, Marcello La Greca, Oronzio Gabriele Costa, Pietro Rossi, Renzo Stefani, Targioni Tozzetti, and many others, active throughout the country for over 200 years, from the Linnaean era to the present day. Their influential work has shaped the history not only of this group of insects but of entomology itself, describing hundreds of new genera and species. GRIO members continue this long and renowned tradition today, contributing to the advancement of the taxonomic and ecological understanding of orthoptera and playing an active and influential role in the international scientific community and supporting Italian institutions such as museums and universities.
Italy boasts a high level of biodiversity, both in general and specifically among Orthoptera, currently hosting approximately 260 species of Orthoptera (of which approximately a quarter have their native habitat here), 56 cockroaches, 27 earwigs, 13 mantises, 5 phasmids, and 8 embioptera (lifewatchitaly.eu). Despite extensive historical and ongoing research, new species continue to be described, such as the grasshopper Oedipoda cynthiae described in 2019, the cricket Acheta pantescus in 2022, and the embioptera Embia minapalumboi in 2024. The Italian orthopteran landscape is constantly evolving, with the spotlight on threatened and endangered species, such as the extremely rare Zeuneriana marmorata, and other recently introduced exotic species with a widespread and worrying distribution, such as the alien Asian mantises of the genus Hierodula.
VGRIO MEETING MINUTES