The autonomous community of the Balearic Islands is comprised of four main islands – the largest and most populous of which is Mallorca, which had a population of over ******* inhabitants as of January 2025. Meanwhile, the second island on the list, Ibiza, was home to roughly ******* inhabitants. With its crystal-clear beaches, the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands attracts millions of domestic and international visitors each year. Which Balearic Island receives the most tourists? ******** received the lion's share of tourist arrivals in the Balearic Islands in 2022. That year, nearly ** percent of tourists in the Balearic Islands visited Mallorca, and this figure remained relatively consistent with the previous three years. The island is a particularly popular travel destination for Germans. In 2022, the number of German tourist arrivals in Mallorca was *** million. How many tourists visit Spain each year? Spain ranked ****** on the World Tourism Organization’s list of most visited countries in the world in 2023, with ** million foreigners having visited that year. The Mediterranean country is also one of Europe’s favorite holiday destinations. **************** and the ************** were some of the leading countries to visit Spain in 2023. That year, over ** million tourists came from the United Kingdom alone.

Two monophyletic sister species of wall lizards inhabit the two main groups of Balearic Islands: Podarcis lilfordi from islets and small islands around Mallorca and Menorca and Podarcis pityusensis from Ibiza, Formentera and associated islets. Genetic diversity within the endangered P. lilfordi has been well characterized, but P. pityusensis has not been studied in depth. Here, 2430 bp of mtDNA and 15 microsatellite loci were analysed from P. pityusensis populations from across its natural range. Two main genetic groupings were identified, although geographical structuring differed slightly between the mtDNA and the nuclear loci. In general, individuals from islets/islands adjacent to the main island of Ibiza were genetically distinct from those from Formentera and the associated Freus islands for both mtDNA and the nuclear loci. However, most individuals from the island of Ibiza were grouped with neighbouring islets/islands for nuclear loci, but with Formentera and Freus islands for the mitochondrial locus. A time-calibrated Bayesian tree was constructed for the principal mitochondrial lineages within the Balearics, using the multispecies coalescent model, and provided statistical support for divergence of the two main P. pityusensis lineages 0.111–0.295 Ma. This suggests a mid-late Pleistocene intraspecific divergence, compared with an early Pleistocene divergence in P. lilfordi, and postdates some major increases in sea level between 0.4 and 0.6 Ma, which may have flooded Formentera. The program IMa2 provided a posterior divergence time of 0.089–0.221 Ma, which was similar to the multispecies coalescent tree estimate. More significantly, it indicated low but asymmetric effective gene copy migration rates, with higher migration from Formentera to Ibiza populations. Our findings suggest that much of the present-day diversity may have originated from a late Pleistocene colonization of one island group from the other, followed by allopatric divergence of these populations. Subsequent gene flow between these insular groups seems likely to be explained by recent human introductions. Two evolutionary significant units can be defined for P. pityusensis but these units would need to exclude the populations that have been the subjects of recent admixture.

This database compiles detailed information on Podarcis pityusensis censuses conducted across various urban and peri-urban sites, covering its geographical range.The dataset includes records of abundance and habitat characteristics for each surveyed site. Additionally, anthropogenic factors like population density and level of urbanization, have been collected.

We investigate evolutionary scaling in form-function-environment relationships of Podarcis pityusensis, the Ibiza wall lizard. A total of 307 lizards from 11 populations were surveyed for bite force and morphology in September/October 2022 and May 2023. These measurements were analysed with ecological data including diet, physical environment, population density, and levels of aggression for each location to investigate evolutionary drivers of form and function in this species. Analysis was done across five levels of evolutionary isolation to investigate whether microgeographic variation in this species contributes towards phenotypic divergence on more macroevolutionary scales. We find general incongruence in form-function-environment relationships across scales investigated, with a lack of phenotypic divergence at the largest scale obscuring high microgeographic variation. Further, the specific environmental drivers of phenotype vary on the level of isolation investigated and on s...