LATE PLEISTOCENE AND HOLOCENE BATS OF LATIUM (CENTRAL ITALY)

Abstract

Salari L. & Kotsakis T., Late Pleistocene and Holocene bats of Latium (Central Italy). In this paper the Late Pleistocene and Holocene fossil and subfossil bats collected in Latium have been examined. Seventeen taxa belonging to eight genera and to four families were reported in the list of fossil species (the presence of three additional species in the fossil assemblages is dubious). Fifteen of them are reported as living today in the region. Exceptions are the boreal species Myotis dasycneme and Eptesicus nilssonii. On the other hand the presence in Latium of Myotis mystacinus and Barbastella barbastellus after 1980 is dubious. The majority of the fossil remains of bats collected in the sites of Latium (especially in terms of number of specimens) belong to troglophilous species, forming reproductive and/or hibernating colonies in caves (Rhinolophidae, Myotis myotis, M. blythii, M. capaccinii and Miniopterus schreibersii). Bats roosting in trees or rock fissures (Nyctalus noctula and Tadarida teniotis) or visiting the caves only during colder winters (Myotis bechsteinii and members of the genera Pipistrellus and Hypsugo) are quite rare. During the colder stages of the Late Pleistocene, the coastal regions of Latium must have played the role of refugia for animals and plants, as testified by several thermophilous Mediterranean sensu stricto species of bats, e.g. Rhinolophus euryale, M. capaccinii, Pipistrellus kuhlii, M. schreibersii and T. teniotis.