In the south-east of Sicily 23 children from 14 unrelated families have been diagnosed as suffering from haemoglobin Lepore. Such a high incidence shows that Sicily is an important focus of haemoglobin Lepore. The results of haematological and biosynthetic studies in 18 carriers of Hb Lepore and in five double heterozygotes for Hb Lepore and beta-thalassaemia are presented. In the carriers the ...

After an intensive survey only 14 patients have been found with a diagnosis of probable multiple sclerosis (MS) in the islands of Malta. This is a low prevalence of 4.2 per 100 000. The low prevalence of MS is confirmed by the small number of deaths certified as due to MS--six in 11 years--and by the absence of Maltese MS patients resident in England among the MS patients admitted to hospital i...

Loquat cultivation in Sicily is mainly based on nonnative cultivars and local ecotypes characterized by high nutraceutical value appreciable physicochemical characteristics. Increased interest commercial loquat production has increased the intention to provide premium quality that include volatile substances capable of conditioning sensorial properties and, therefore, acceptability fruits consu...

Ten Dasytidae species have been found to be present in the Egadi islands, one of which—Danacea hierena n. sp.—is endemic of the whole Archipelago and is here described. Excluding the new species, no other endemic has been found and the Egadi Dasytidae fauna appears to be rather similar to the Sicilian one. Dasytes croceipes Kiesenwetter, 1866 is reported new for Sicily.

Based on shell characters, two new species of the gastropod family Trochidae, Jujubinus eleonorae n. sp. and Jujubinus trilloi n. sp., from the Sicily Channel are described. Shells of the new taxa were collected in the lower infralittoral of the Skerki and Talbot Banks, respectively. The new taxa are compared with Jujubinus curinii Bogi & Campani, 2005, morphologically the most closely related ...