Let’s kick off a small in-depth section of the terminology used in the NatSalMo project.

Salmo macrostigma

Not everyone knows that the Mediterranean trout typical of central-southern and insular Italy has a scientific name, or rather, two: Salmo macrostigma or Salmo cettii.

Today we tend to consider the two nomenclatur as synonyms, but in truth in this indigenous trout (settled in the territory since remote times) of the genus Salmo attribution of the epithet that gives the name to the species is from always in discussion among scholars. In 1810 the Rafinesque proposed Cettii, dedicating it to the abbot Francesco Cetti, the first naturalist who reported it to the rivers of Sardinia in 1777. Based on the morphotype, or the recurrent physical characteristics, a few decades later the Dumeril attributed it to nomenclature of Salmo macrostigma.