Ascalaphus festivus (Rambur, 1842) in Sardinia, a new genus of Ascalaphidae for Europe (Neuroptera)

Ascalaphus festivus (Rambur, 1842), a widespread polytypic species in Africa and Middle East, was collected for the first time in southern Sardinia in the 1990s in two independent occasions. Subsequent specific surveys proved the existence of a stable breeding population in at least one coastal locality of Sardinia, thus allowing to fully consider this genus a member of the European fauna.