Nyctalus montanus (Barrett-Hamilton, 1906)

Hussain, I., Ahmed, S. A. Mehmood S., Salim, M., Hussain, A., Noureen, S., Ahmed, D., Israr, M., Akbar, F., Rasool, A., Jabeen, H., Saeed, K., Alam, A., Usman, K., Saeed, N., Khan, W. & Shah, M., 2022, Systematic analysis of leisler’s bat Nyctalus leisleri (Kuhl, 1817) captured from FATA region, Pakistan, Brazilian Journal of Biology (e 238337) 82, pp. 1-9 : 1-2

N. montanus and N. velutinus . In the Indian Subcontinent it is represented by a single genus and three species including Nyctalus noctula (Schreber,1774) , Nyctalus leisleri (Kuhl,1819) and Nyctalus montanus (Barrett-Hamilton,1906) ( Roberts, 1997; Bates and Harrison, 1997). In Pakistan only two species have been reported till now. The first one was reported from Gharial in Murree Hills at 2385 m while the second from Kululai, Yakh Tangai at Swat Kohistan with height of 1850 m in 1972 by Dr Walton, ( Walton, 1974). The same species ranges from low elevation plains ( Ruczynski and Ruczynska, 2000) up to mountain forests in Europe (Hruz et al., 2000; Spitzenberger and Bauer, 2001).

It is migratory species in Europe and occurred in northern Himalayan region of Pakistan ( Walker et al., 1964). It is not mentioned in Siddiqi’s (1961, 1970) checklists.It is believed that these species migrate to Pakistan in summer, although specimens were collected from the Murree Hills as late as 8 th November. The District Swat Kohistan species were collected on 1 st September, hunting in open area however Walton did not find its roost.

It was also collected from Palgham in Indian Kashmir from Kumaon and Simla further east, so it have fairly widely distributed in the better forested regions of Himalayans. In Pakistan, it appears to have associated with possible mesic conditions in the Himalayan, moist temperate forest zone. It is very numerous and probaily does not appear to be highly gregarious.

Only two species have been reported from two provinces of Afghanistan i.e. Paktia province ( Meyer-Oehme,1965) and Jalalabad (Gaisler, 1970). It is very rare in Afghanistan while not reported from Iran yet.On 18 th March a male was reported near Jalalabad which are very active sexually (Gaisler,1970).

This medium sized insectivorous bat specializes with aerial for fast hawking and their body (forearm length 40-47 mm, body mass 9-20g was reviewed by Bogdanowicz and Ruprecht, 2004). This species emerges in early to hunt, like many of the Pipistrellus species and often active before sunset. They have strong and superb flight and feed from small to medium-sized insects (Nematocera, Trichoptera, Coleoptera, and Lepidoptera ( Nowak, 1991; Beck,1995; Vaughan, 1997; Shiel et al., 1998, Waters et al., 1999; Fuhrmann et al., 2002). Exclusively they built roosts in tree-hollows ( Ruczyñski and Bogdanowicz, 2005), except Ireland, where nursery colonies occupy roof attics ( Shiel et al., 1999). The purpose of present study is to broaden the scope to understanding about the morphology and distribution of N. leisleri in Pakistan.