Bats ( Mammalia : Chiroptera ) from Tabuk Province , Saudi Arabia *

Additional distributional data on the bats of Tabuk Provence, Saudi Arabia, are given for 10 species. The Asian Barbastelle, Barbastella leucomelas, is recorded for the first time for Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Peninsula. Data on bats calls for four species are also given.


Introduction
Tabuk province is located along the most northwestern part of Saudi Arabia, bordering southern Jordan from the north and extends along the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea, with a total area of 108,000 km².Different types of habitats are found within Tabuk, including coastal mountains that extend along the Red Sea, moderate coastal plains, steppes in the eastern and central area, and an extension of the Nofood (sand desert) to the south east (Fig. 1).Hara (black lava desert) lies between Red Sea mountains and the inner mountains south of Tabuk.
The present study is the first attempt to identify the bats of Tabuk Province and study their echolocation calls.

Materials and methods
A total of 12 localities representing different habitats in Tabuk Province were visited (Table 1, Fig. 1).Bats were netted with mist nets (6 × 3 m) placed on cave entrances, paths among old ruins and tunnels, and open water pools.Anabat SD2 recorder was used to record bat calls from the studied sites.

Habitat.
A large colony consisting of over 100 individuals was observed in a small cave in Tor Qunibi, Sharma.
The cave is about 12 m long, with rocky slopes.The amount of guano in the cave is about 15 cm in thickness, suggesting the presence of a large colony over time.
Habitat.One specimen was mistnetted near an open cave with small water pool.It was found along with Ep tesicus bottae.Alagan consists of sand stone mountains, with sand dunes wadis.
Remarks.This is the first record for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Peninsula.No actual record of this bat is available for Saudi Arabia.The record of this species from "coast of Arabia" refers to Sinai (harrison & Bates, 1991).Barbastella leucomelas is considered as a rare species with few records from Southern Palestine and Jordan and is endemic to the arid regions around the northern edge of the Red Sea (Benda et al., 2008).It was recorded from Al Ghal, Wadi Ramm area (Benda et al., 2010), which is very close to Alagan-Algtar.Calls recorded from Alagan have a range of 50 -47 kHz for starting frequency and 30 -35 kHz for end 3), and end frequency between 27.7 − 31.8 kHz (average 29.2 ± 1.1), and the second with starting frequency between 43.0 − 45.0 kHz (average 44.1 ± 0.5) and end frequency of 29.8 − 38.5 kHz (average 34.3 ± 2.9).In Sinai, Benda et al. (2008) obtained starting frequency for calls of type A as 35.9 -41.9 (average 39.4 ± 1.1) and end frequency of 25.1 -31.5 kHz (average 29.4 ± 1.2), while type B calls with starting frequency between 43.7 -46.9 (average 45.2 ± 0.9) and end frequency of 25.9 -40.7 kHz (average 33.8 ± 4.6).

Eptesicus bottae (Peters, 1869)
Fig. 3E Material examined.TMC003, 1♂, Alagan-Algtar, 21.6.2014. Calls: Bajdah-Alsero, 26.6.2014.Habitat.A specimen was collected from a sandstone desert in Alagan-Algtar, while other animals were observed and their calls were recorded from high mountains reach-ing up 1100 m asl with open deserts in Bajdah-Alsero.They were found to frequent water reservoirs for watering camels Remarks.This is a rather common species.It was mistnetted at Alagan-Algtar along with B. leucomelas.At Bajdah-Alsero, one individual was mistnetted but managed to escape, however, calls were recorded on 26.6.2014.
Our data showed a starting frequency between 45 -37 kHz and an end frequency between 28 -30 kHz (Fig. 5).Benda et al. (2010) showed starting frequency between 37.9 − 83.0 (average 53.6 ± 9.3) kHz and end frequency between 27.0 − 33.7 kHz (average 30.4 ± 1.5) for this species from Jordan. holderied et al. (2005) studied the call intensity for Eptesicus bottae using stereo videogrammetry.They reported duration of emitted calls of about 7 ms, a peak frequency of 32.5 kHz, a bandwidth of 8.7 kHz, and a mean pulse interval of 155.6 ms during search flight.Remarks.It was recorded from near Taif (GauCher & harrison, 1995).Hypsugo ariel was considered previously as Pipistrellus bodenheimeri.It was found along with Rhinolophus clivosus in Al Moatham castle and with Rousettus aegyptiacus inTaima-Al Hamra farms.This is the second record for Saudi Arabia.
Habitats.Otonycteris hemprichii was collected from That Al Haj, an agricultural area with date groove and open water pools.Old deserted houses are located within the nearby farms.

Plecotus christii Gray, 1838
Remarks.This species was recorded from Misfera, north of Abha (nader & KoCK, 1990b).This is a colonial species.In Jordan clusters of over 30 individuals were observed in caves (Benda et al., 2010).Habitat: This a large area covered with Tamarix and Typha vegetation.It extends over 1 km in length and about 500m in width.Water is shallow, not exceeding 30 cm.

Discussion
The present study adds one additional species (Barbas tella leucomelas) to the bats of the Arabian Peninsula and Saudi Arabia.Also, this study is the first attempt to provide calls recording for the bats of Saudi Arabia, where data for four species are presented.
The current study includes additional records for R. aegyptiacus which expand the distribution range of this bat in north western Saudi Arabia.Over the past eight decades, only eight records were published covering coastal areas and few inland localities.
It is obvious that the distribution of the bats of Saudi Arabia is still poorly known.Examining the previous records thus far, the status of records is very low for a large country as Saudi Arabia.Further studies to map the distribution of the Saudi bats are needed.Since the last publication by nader (2000), only two studies included data on the distribution of few bats from Saudi Arabia (alaGaili et al., 2011;memish et al., 2013).

Table 1 .
Locations visited during the study and their coordinates.
Fig. 1.Map of Tabuk Province showing visited localities.
Benda & vallo (2012) acrotis, is known from around Yemen with localities from southwestern Saudi Arabia including and was collected fromMothra, Al  Hajeb Al Naji (nader, 1982).Benda & vallo (2012)reported that Rh. clivosus consists of several lineages, representing six various morphotypes based on molecular and morphomeric data.One specimen was caught from a house near a farming area in Al Bedea'a.The area is cultivated with several types of trees with plentiful open water pools.The farms are surrounded by rocky hills with small caves.Collected from an old Turkish lookout by nader (harrison & Bates, 1991)stern Rhinopoma hardwickii as Rhinopoma cystops based on hulva et al. (2007).Hence, old records for R. hardwickii for Saudi Arabia should be considered as R. cystops.It was previously reported from Al Bad'a and Maghair Shoaib in Tabuk Province (harrison & Bates,1991)based on specimens at the BNHM.Elsewhere in Saudi Arabia, it was reported from Medina, near Riyadh(nader, 1975), Al Jowa (nader, 1982)and from Midian in the north to the vicinity of Abha and Farasan island in the south(harrison & Bates, 1991).Recently recorded fromBish and Naqi (memish et al., 2013).Remarks.This species was recorded from Muwailih,Mecca and Tayif (morrison-sCott, 1939), Wadi Ad  Dawasir (nader, 1975), Tuwaiq near Tayif and from Al Baha, 50 km NNE Abha and Raydah escarpment (harrison & Bates, 1991).According to nader (1982), Rhi nolophus clivosus clivosus is confined to western Ara-bia, while Material examined.Al Bedea'a, April 2015.Habitat.