Foldi, I. 2000 Diversité et modification des peuplements de cochenilles des Isles d'Hyères en milieux naturels et anthropisés (Hemiptera: Coccoidea).. Annales de la Société Entomologique de France 36(1): 75-94.
Notes: Title in English: [Diversity and modification of the scale insects communities of the Hyères islands in natural and man-modified environments (Hemiptera: Coccoidea).] The species diversity and the composition of populations of scale insects in natural and man-modified environments in the French Mediterranean Hyeres Islands is analysed. Of the total of 101 species collected, 63 are new records to the islands, 6 of which are new to the French fauna: Aclerda berlesii, Neomargarodes europaeus, Antonina graminis, Ferrisia virgata, Geococcus coffeae, Pure palinuri. The new records are of Palaearctic (mostly Euro-Siberian and Mediterranean) origin or cosmopolitan; most are polyphagous, specialising in living on branches. The most common coccoid species on the islands is Saissetia oleae. Trionymus lanatus seems to be endemic. Thirty five pest species are recorded, of which 21 are probably recent introductions. Both descriptive and evolutionary aspects of scale insect biodiversity were studied. Comparison of the results with data from 67 year ago shows that the modification of populations differs between natural and man-modified environments. In the natural environment of Port-Cros National Park the fauna remained quite stable, changing only from 44 to 51 species. However, in man-modified environments there has been a marked increase in the number of species: from 14 to 77 in Porquerolles, and from 18 to 30 in Levant. These results show that human activities does not reduce, on the contrary, it increases, species diversity, by facilitating introduction of alien species to the islands; among them are numerous cosmopolitan and polyphagous species which are indicators for a disturbed environment. One of the detrimental effects of human activity is the fragmentation of vegetation in fragile habitats, which particularly affects rare and monophagous species. A list of scale insect species recorded in the islands is provided, together with some biological and biogeographical data.