Egyptian tomb bat

The Egyptian tomb bat (Taphozous perforatus) is a medium to large microbat of the sac-winged bat family Emballonuridae, with a mass of about 30 grams. It is an aerial insectivore that forages in open space; droppings from Ethiopian animals showed a diet of mostly moths (57 percent) with termites, beetles, katydids and crickets, bugs, lacewings, ants and flies. Its body length is 64.8 to 80 millimetres, with forearms 60.2 to 65.3 millimetres long, and four subspecies are recognised from West Africa, Egypt and northern Sudan, southern and eastern Africa, and from Tanzania through Ethiopia into South Asia. Females are polyestrous and can be pregnant and lactating at once. The type locality is Kom Ombo in Egypt. The species ranges across much of Africa and into Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and India, in dry savanna and, in South Asia, tropical thorn forest, and avoids deserts and forests. A MERS coronavirus isolate matching the first identified patient was found in one of these bats near his home in Saudi Arabia. The IUCN rates it least concern, with a large, stable population.