DO THE DOMESTIC SPARROWS,PASSER DOMESTICUS ITALIAE (VIEILLOT, 1817),ORIGINATED IN ITALY?.

Comparisons of a zoogeographical kind lead us to assume that the current population of Italian sparrows present in the biogeographical area of Crete may have an even recent anthropochorous origin, since it cannot be ruled out that it may has been introduced onto the island – perhaps even deliberately – in historic times, possibly precisely via individuals of Italian provenance (Masseti & Dinetti, 2009). Moreover, as we know the Venetian dominion over Crete endured for over four centuries, from 1204 to 1669. In this period the island produced wheat, timber for the shipyards, oil, skins, wine and other important trading goods. Above all, however, it boasted a strategic geographical position, unrivalled for the purpose of controlling the navigation routes of the eastern Mediterranean and the trade routes with the Levant. The historic introduction of the Italian sparrow onto Crete and the nearby islands may has been performed intentionally. However it cannot be ruled out that such importation could have occurred passively (Masseti & Dinetti 2009). Bourne (1966), for example, has suggested that the European house sparrows may have accidentally reached the Atlantic archipelago of Cape Verde, between 1922 and 1924, transported passively aboard vessels originating from Europe. In a very similar manner, the species also reached the Canaries (Clarke 2008). In this way, other areas geographically remote in relation to the primary distribution of the species were also colonized, such as the Atlantic archipelago of the Falklands (Hamilton 1944) and the Juan Fernández islands in the Pacific (Summers-Smith 1963). In the light of the genetic data expounded, the intriguing hypothesis of a direct origin from Italy of the current population of P. italiae in the Cretan area could be confirmed. In order to fully resolve the phylogenetic relationship of the sparrow from Crete the our preliminary molecular informations should be integrated with morphological and ecological knowledges. This is a preliminary study, but further intra- and inter-specific investigations will be useful to describe the diversity patterns in this group, with important implications in developing appropriate conservation management strategies.