New data on the bat fauna of Con Dao Islands

Kruskop S.V.

P. 37-46

The composition of the bat fauna of Con Dao Islands (Southern Vietnam) is discussed. The insular fauna apparently comprises only eight species, including one frugivorous pteropodid, one nectarivorous pteropodid, one Rhinolophus species, and three species of leaf-nosed bats, false vampire, and one Kerivoula. The Fawn leaf-nosed bat, Hipposideros galeritus, was recorded on Con Dao for the first time. Some of previously published records should be treated as mistakes. Data of the cox 1 mitochondrial gene sequences support that mainland and insular horseshoe bats are conspecifics. Thus the usage of the name Rhinolophus chaseni in connection to the mainland populations is justified. The same genetic data show that the insular Hipposideros cf. larvatus and mainland H. grandis are also probably conspecifics, despite morphological difference of these two forms. In general, it can be supposed that the insular bat populations were derived from their mainland conspecifics at the very beginning of the Holocene, a presumed time of the archipelago origin.DOI: 10.15298/rusjtheriol.10.2.01