Crocidura cossyrensis Contoli, 1989 (Mammalia, Soricidae): karyotype, biochemical genetics and hybridization experiments

The shrew Crocidura cossyrensis Contoli, 1989 from Pantelleria (I), a Mediterranean island 100 km south of Sicily and 70 km west from Tunisia, was investigated in order to understand its origin and its relationship with C. russula from Tunisia, Morocco and Switzerland. With the exception of a single heterozygote centric fusion, C. cossyrensis had a karyotype identical with that of C. russula from Tunisia (2N = 42, NF = 70 to 72), but it differed from C. russula from Morocco and Switzerland (2N = 42, NF = 60). The former have 5-6 pairs of chromosomes with small arms that are acrocentric in the latter. Genetic comparisons with allozyme data revealed small genetic distance (0.04) between C. co…