The Italian natural history museums are facing a critical situation, due to the progressive loss of scientific relevance, decreasing economic investments, and scarcity of personnel. This is extremely alarming, especially for ensuring the long-term preservation of the precious collections they host. Moreover, a commitment in fieldwork to increase scientific collections and concurrent taxonomic research are rarely considered priorities, while most of the activities are addressed to public events with political payoffs, such as exhibits, didactic meetings, expositions, and talks. This is possibly due to the absence of a national museum that would have better steered research activities and overall concepts for collection management. We here propose that Italian natural history museums collaborate to instate a “metamuseum”, by establishing a reciprocal interaction network aimed at sharing budgetary and technical resources, which would assure better coordination of common long-term goals and scientific activities.

The Afrotropical species of Asura Walker, 1854 are revised, and Afrasura, gen. n., is proposed to accommodate the group. The new genus is differentiated from Asura Walker, 1854 by external features and the morphology of the genitalia. Twenty-one new combinations and/or new species are proposed: Afrasura indecisa (Walker, 1869) comb. n., status rev. (type species); Afrasura amaniensis (Cieslak & Häuser, 2006) comb. n.; Afrasura crenulata (Bethune-Baker, 1911) comb. n., stat. rev; Afrasura discocellularis (Strand, 1912) comb. n., stat. rev.; Afrasura discreta sp. n.; Afrasura dubitabilis sp. n.; Afrasura emma sp. n.; Afrasura hieroglyphica (Bethune-Baker, 1911) comb. n., stat. rev.; Afrasura hyporhoda (Hampson, 1900) comb. n.; Afrasura ichorina (Butler, 1877) comb. n.; Afrasura neavi (Hampson, 1914) comb. n., stat. rev.; Afrasura numida (Holland, 1893) comb. n.; Afrasura obliterata (Walker, 1864) comb. n.; Afrasura pallescens sp. n.; Afrasura peripherica hilara (Kiriakoff, 1958) comb. n.; Afrasura rivulosa (Walker, 1854) comb. n.; Afrasura submarmorata (Kiriakoff, 1958) comb. n.; Afrasura terlineata sp. n.; Afrasura violacea (Cieslak & Häuser, 2006) comb. n.; and two unplaced species. The following subspecies are proposed: Afrasura indecisa orientalis ssp. n.; Afrasura rivulosa ethiopica ssp. n. The following names are synonymized: Asura fulvia Hampson, 1900 syn. n. and Asura obsolescens Hampson, 1914 syn. n., both synonyms of Afrasura rivulosa (Walker, 1854) comb. n.; Asura xantha Bethune-Baker, 1911 syn n., synonym of Afrasura indecisa (Walker, 1869) comb. n., stat. rev. A checklist and key to the species of Afrasura gen. n. are provided; habitus and genitalia of all taxa are figured.

We reviewed the subgenus Daphaenisca Kiriakoff, 1953 created for the single species Pseudapiconoma daphaena Hampson, 1898, in order to separate it from the other species included in the genus Pseudapiconoma Aurivillius, 1881. However, Kiriakoff's diagnosis was entirely based on the differences in the shape of the uncus among the subgenera Daphaenisca, Pseudapiconoma and Balacra Hampson, 1914. This study provides new, more accurate descriptions of the group, taking into account the differential characters and possible synapomorphies within the subgenus Daphaenisca. Our findings are supported by three new species recently discovered in Gabon and Ghana, belonging to the subgenus Daphaenisca: Balacra (Daphaenisca) inexpectata sp. n.; Balacra (Daphaenisca) magnoloi sp. n.; Balacra (Daphaenisca) flava sp. n.

Pusiola celida Bethune-Baker, 1911 and Novilema fluminale Durante & Panzera, 2001b are recorded for the first time in Gabon; the synonymy of the subspecies P. celida celida Bethune-Baker, 1911 and P. unipunctana maior Durante & Panzera, 2002a is revised; two species are described as new: Pusiola unicolor Durante new species and Novilema bifurcum Durante new species. The exclusion of Archilema triangulare Durante & Panzera, 2001b from the genus Novilema Durante & Panzera, 2001b is discussed together with criteria for assigning four species of the genus Archilema Birket-Smith, 1965 to the subgenera identified by Birket-Smith (1965). These species are as follows: Archilema (Archilema) lucens Durante & Panzera, 2002c; Archilema (Archilema) subalba Durante & Panzera, 2001b; Archilema (Palilema) quadrilobata Durante & Panzera, 2001b; Archilema (Palilema) triangularis Durante & Panzera, 2001b.

From 2011 to 2013 have been located, identified and partially excavated the remains of a new thermal complex in the Roman city of Baelo Claudia (Tarifa, Cádiz), located in the western suburbium of the city, next to the coast line. These so called Maritime Baths were built in the first half of the II c. AD, and abandoned during Diocletian/Constantine times. They have been excavated stratigraphically in detail, having detected the existence of previous phases (dating back to the II c. BC) and the continuity of use of the environment during the Late Roman and Modern era, linked to the exploitation of marine resources. Unique has been the finding of the traumatic collapse of part of the walls of the rooms in the building at two specific moments: on one hand in Late Antiquity (500 AD circa), where a wall of one of the rooms (H-3), annexed to the natatio, was located completely collapsed on the floor, and connected; and for another, the collapse of the west wall of the natatio and the eastern one of the cistern, built structures of more than six meters length and four minimum height (M-12), fallen down over the abandonment levels of the settlement dated in late middle ages or Modern times (XIV-XV c. AD). It is on both occasions an unusual structural collapse in normal archaeological sedimentation processes, so it is very likely that its collapse can be linked to seismic events or other similar natural disasters.