Lacerto agilis in north-eastern Italy (Reptilia, Lacertidae)

Abstract

The authors present a databank on the distribution of Lacerta agilis in Trentino Alto Adige and Friuli-Venezia Giulia (north-eastern Italy) based on bibliographic and museum data as well as field surveys. In these regions, the sand lizard seems to be very rare. Up to now, in the area surrounding Bozen (Alto Adige), the presence of the species has not been confirmed, since the labels of some historical museum samples do not allow any precise localities to be identified. In Friuli-Venezia Giulia, the lizard has only been signalled in the Danube Catchment near Tarvisio, and at the border of the Julian Pre-Alps, near Gorica. In the area of Tarvisio, neither an unpublished datum from the Carnic Alps nor the data from Fusine in Valromana have been confirmed. Moreover, the record from Gorica comes from a label of an old museum sample, and may refer to a very wide area around this town, probably in Slovenia. What is more, assuming that the present situation might be heavily underestimated, the species in north-eastern Italy must be considered seriously endangered, perhaps on the verge of local extinction.