Francesco Porcelli

Summary

Cultural posture and a summary of activities
My posture in research tends to rationalize, apply, and transfer knowledge in General and Applied Entomology and to mitigate damage caused by alien, invasive or quarantine insects.
The strategy of choice to transfer knowledge base to problem-solving is Integrated Pest Management (IPM), interpreted in its DSS (Decision Support System) nature in an IF (Integrated Farming) context. The demands made by stakeholders for mitigation of pesticide use, sustainability, and Farm to Fork production suggest an Antifragile vision for managing Urban, Cultivated and Natural environments.
My cultural standpoint continues to originate from readings and teachings, participation and collaborations in BSc, MSc and PhD courses and supervision of BSc, MSc, and PhD theses in co-tutorship between research institutions of different countries. With the same intention, I have accepted to participate in dozens of national and international research and coordination congresses, committees, and symposia, all by invitation.
The many interactions and requests for discussion have allowed me to consider the protection of the same crops and plant or animal productions from multiple perspectives. The same pest control view from different points of view prompted me to disassemble and reassemble the challenge in various scenarios to explore diverse management opportunities. Collection trips abroad in Albania, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Greece, England, Canary Archipelago, Israel, Lebanon, Madeira, Maldives Archipelago, Malta, Morocco, Norway, Palestine, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sry Lanka, and The Netherlands deepened my experiences to entomology in different habitats. The abroad trip supported me in understanding and using other languages, English (fluent), intermediate French & Spanish, and Classical studies in high school helped me to translate from written technical Russian. The need for results during foreign experiences pushed me to unconventional uses of light and electron microscopy, digital imaging, macro/microphotography, biological & taxonomical database building and management, morphological schematic drawing ability, and digital typesetting.
Overall, I have interacted with several thousand people involved in insect management in different countries, including training them from 1979 to the present. on Economic entomology; Insect Functional Morphology; Systematic & Taxonomy of Diaspididae (Hemiptera Coccoidea); Italian Macrolepidoptera fauna; Forensic entomology, Alien, Invasive and Quarantine Pest. By the way, I gave Private company classified research with Emitech (Ruvo di Puglia (BA), Italy); MBLSolutions (Corato (BA), Italy); ITEL Telecomunicazioni (Corato (BA), Italy); CIART (Andria (BA), Italy) Leica-Bleu Line (Forlì (FC)-Italy); Unitec Srl (Milano (MI)); Dyrecta Lab (Conversano (BA), Italy).
The reporting and study of various alien insects that have already invaded the Mediterranean: the Red Palm Weevil (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus), Orange Spiny Whitefly (Aleurocanthus spiniferus), Ornamental Figs Psylla (Macrohomotoma gladiata), Ornamental Figs pollinators, Oak mealybugs (Kermes vermilio and Nidularia pulvinata), Pine deltoid scale (Gomezmenoraspis pinicola), and the study of alien but beneficial organisms, e.g. Zelus renardii, have been formative experiences to deal with the actual invasion of Xylella fastidiosa, consciously.

Agricultural Science Animal Behavior Biodiversity Entomology Population Biology Taxonomy Zoology