Sympatric distribution of two cryptic bat species across Europe

Abstract

The analysis of echolocation calls and mitochondrial DNA sequences recently revealed the existence of two cryptic bat species in Western Europe which were regarded as «Pipistrellus pipistrellus» for more than 200 years. We now present data on acoustic and genetic characters across Europe including a novel genetic marker from the nuclear genome. Intraspecific variation of end frequencies of echolocation calls did not differ between geographic regions and only a little overlap existed between the two species. Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences for the two species were highly divergent. No evidence was found for additional cryptic species in this group. With the exception of Scandinavia, both species occur across the whole of Europe and largely overlap in their range. The distribution of the species using echolocation calls at higher frequencies extends further north and the same species is also more common in the south along the Mediterranean Sea.