Across the Channel and Through Time: Did Lesser Horseshoe Bats Colonise Pantelleria From Europe or North Africa?

ABSTRACT: Islands provide unique opportunities to study historical biogeography, acting as both cradles of endemism and active corridors for species dispersal. The Sicilian Channel, which separates Sicily from the Maghreb, exemplifies this complexity. We investigated the colonisation history of the lesser horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros) on Pantelleria Island (southern Italy) to assess whether its population derives from Europe or North Africa. Because R. hipposideros has limited dispersal ability and is largely sedentary, its occurrence on Pantelleria raises questions about past connectivity across the Channel. We analysed mitochondrial markers (COI, cyt-b, 12S) from Pantelleria, Malta, Algeria, and across the species' range. Phylogenetic and haplotype network analyses place P

SUBMITTER: Cistrone L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12514184 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature