54. Mehely’s Horseshoe Bat, Rhinolophus mehelyi Matschie, 1901

(IUCN Red List: VU)

Subspecies: R. m. judaicus Andersen & Matschie, 1904 .

Distribution:Uncommon; confined to caves in the arid areas around the Euphrates Valley as well as in the mountainous habitats around Aleppo and Damascus (Fig. 61).

Previous records: ar-Raqqa, Qater Maghara and Maadan (Ebenau 1996), Maadan (Walter & Ebenau 1997), Halabiyyeh, Jeiroud, and Aleppo (Benda et al. 2006).

Remarks: Due to clear metric differences in R. mehelyi of the Mediterranean, i.e., between the large-sized European and Maghrebian bats on one side and the small-sized Levantine, Cyrenaican and Egyptian bats on the other, Benda et al. (2006, 2014) suggested to treat the latter group of populations (including the Syrian individuals) as a separate subspecies, R. m. judaicus .