Vol. 78 2026

ARTICLES

Contribution to Distribution, Morphology, and Phylogeny of Pipistrellus kuhlii (Kuhl 1817) in Türkiye

Emre Barlas1, Derya Çetintürk2 & Nuri Yiğit2*

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1Section of Biology, Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Ankara University, Ankara, Türkiye; E-mail: barlasemre86@gmail.com
*2Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Ankara University, Ankara, Türkiye: E-mails: dcetinturk@ankara.edu.tr, nyigit@science.ankara.edu.tr

https://doi.org/10.71424/azb78.1.002890

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Abstract

We expanded the known distribution area of Pipistrellus kuhlii (Kuhl 1817) in Türkiye by providing new record locations, especially from the Turkish Thrace and Marmara Regions. The white stripe on the distal edge of the wing membrane is one of the distinguishing characteristics of this species. Since this stripe could be very indistinct in some specimens, the importance of the unicuspid structure of the upper inner incisor tooth in the species determination has been emphasized. In Cyt-b analyses of 383 base pair sequences of a Turkish population, 40 haplotypes were obtained from 47 samples with haplotype diversity Hd= 0.995 and nucleotide diversity Pi= 0.044. In COI analyses (344 base pair), 51 samples gave 14 haplotypes, and 11 of these haplotypes belonged to Turkish specimens with Hd= 0.674 and Pi= 0.028. The genetic distance values were determined to vary between 1.6% and 10% among the sub-populations of P. kuhlii distributed in Europe, Türkiye, and Asia. These genetic values support the possibility that European samples may have differed from Turkish and Asian samples at the species level.

Key words

Kuhl’s pipistrelle, Cyt-b, COI, systematics

How to Cite
Barlas E., Çetintürk D. & Yiğit N. 2026. Contribution to Distribution, Morphology, and Phylogeny of Pipistrellus kuhlii (Kuhl 1817) in Türkiye. Acta zoologica bulgarica 78.

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