Reptiles and Amphibians along the Coastal Area of the Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia

Thirty-two species of amphibians and reptiles were reported during this study, including 16 families (Ranidae, Geoemydidae, Cheloniidae, Gekkonidae, Sphaerodactylidae, Phyllodactylidae, Agamidae, Lacertidae, Scincidae, Varanidae, Trogonophidae, Boidae, Colubridae, Psammophiidae, Viperidae and Elapidae). Family Geckkonidae was represented by the highest number of species (8), followed by families Agamidae and Scincidae (four species for each). Trachylepis tessellata is reported for the first time to the herpetofauna of Saudi Arabia.

As for the eastern region of Saudi Arabia, Stenodactylus slevini and Pseudoceramodactylus khobarensis and Acanthodactylus schmidti were originally described from Dhahran, Al Khobar and Dhahran by Haas (1957) respectively and Acanthodactylus haasi from Dhahran by Leviton & Anderson (1967).Several species were reported by Haas (1957Haas ( , 1961)), Mandeville (1967) and Haas & Werner (1969).A series of papers on the behaviour of lizards in the eastern region were published by Ross (1988Ross ( , 1989Ross ( , 1990Ross ( , 1991Ross ( , 1993)).The herpetofauna of Al Jubail Wildlife Sanctuary and its vicinity was studied by Martens (1996).He reported a total of 24 species of terrestrial and marine reptiles.Later, Al-Sadoon (2010) recorded 34 species of reptiles from Al Hassa region.
The present study documents further records along the coastal region of eastern Saudi Arabia, covering several habitats that were not studied previously and review all previous studies on the region.

Field methodology
Thirty-two species of amphibians and reptiles were either collected or observed during the study period (May-October 2023).Collected specimens were deposited at Taibah University, Department of Biology, Al-Madinah Al Munawwarah, Al-Madinah Zoological collection (EZC).Field trips were carried out and covered the main habitats with a total of 35 localities (Table 1).Observed animals were based on actual observations or through images send to us by the locals.Reptile's specimens held at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) collection were examined and included in the study.Most collected reptiles were examined, identified and then released at the site of collection.

Study Area
The Eastern Province is located in the eastern part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and is the largest Province in the Kingdom with an area of approximately 518,300 km 2 , overlooking the Arabian Gulf and a coastline of over 1,000 km and its maximum extent from north to south is approximately 1,300 km and the maximum extent from east to west is about 800 km.
Much of the eastern region consists of sandy deserts.Ad-Dahna Desert extends in an arc from north to south, then flows into Al Jafourah Desert and extends south to join the Empty Quarter Desert.Plateaus and Hills are exemplified by Dibdiba, Al-Suman and Shadgum.There are some small limestone mountains such as Jabal Al-Qara, Jabal Al Araba'a and Osba'a Judah.Habitats include sand dunes, sedimentary formation resulted from sea retraction, freshwater lakes, irrigated canals, salt marshes "Sabkha" and agricultural areas (Figures 1 & 2).In addition, observations were made around some islands in the Gulf.Sandy plains like Josamen, are rich in vegetation, represented by Leptadenia pyrotechnica, Calligonum comosum, Panicum sp. and Haloxylon aff.salicornicum.The province's wetlands include natural springs in Al Hassa and Al Qatif, and lakes that are formed from irrigation such as Al Asfar, Al-Ayoun and Al Khuraes lakes.Material examined: EZC005-006, Al Qudaih Farm, 1.6.2023.Observed: Al Suhaemeah farms, 5.9.2023.D1Agricultar Canal, 5.9.2023.Remarks: This is a common species observed in irrigation canals around Al Hassa area.Different morphs were seen, representing young and old animals.The distribution of this species is limited to eastern Saudi Arabia and Abha region in southwestern Saudi Arabia (Balletto et al., 1985;Al-Qahtania & Al-Johany, 2018).In eastern and central Saudi Arabia, it was reported from Dharan, Hofuf, Qatif (Haas, 1957(Haas, , 1961)), Al Qatif (Briggs, 1981) and around Riyadh, Deriyah, Oyainah, Al-Kharj, Al Majmaah and Unayzah (Al-Johany et al., 2014).Currently, seven species of amphibians have been reported from Saudi Arabia, most of which are known from southwestern Saudi Arabia (Balletto et al., 1985;Al-Qahtania & Al-Johany, 2018).
Remarks: Females of the Caspian turtle were seen while basking on stones in canals and in Al Asfar Lake.It is very common along irrigation canals and all forms of permanent water.Previous records include specimens from Dharan (Haas, 1957), Hufof, Al Qatif and Al Uqayr, (Gasperetti et al., 1993).Vamberger et al. (2013) recognized two eastern clusters of M. caspica based on molecular analysis; one is distributed in the Caucasus region and Iran, and a second in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.Aloufi (2009) studied the distribution of the Caspian turtle in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.He reported that it was very common and widespread in Al Hassa region and extends from the northern to the southern and eastern villages.It was found to inhabit running water, drainage canals, stagnant water, lakes (Al-Asfar and Al-Ayoun), and swamps.Aloufi (2009) reported that the number of breeding sites of M. caspica was reduced from 159 sites in the early 1970s to about 19 in 2009, due to changes in irrigation schemes in Al Hassa region.
Remarks: The Hawksbill Sea Turtle was observed around Al Jurayd island.It is known to occur in all subtropical and tropical oceans.Gasperetti et al. (1993) indicated several nesting sites in the Arabian Gulf on the coast of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.Miller (1989) stated that the offshore islands (e.g.Jana Island) of Saudi Arabia is among the nesting sites for this turtle.
Remarks: The rough bent-toed gecko has a wide range of distribution in the Middle East reaching the coastal regions of the Red Sea (Sindaco & Jeremčenko, 2008).In Saudi Arabia, it was recorded from several localities in the eastern province by Haas (1957).It is mostly associated with urbanized areas inside buildings in Al Jubail and Riyadh regions (Al-Sadoon, 1988;Martens, 1996).Carranza et al. (2021) stated that it is believed that the presence of this species in the Arabian Penisula represents human introductions.This species was found along with Hemidactylus persicus in building's walls and agricultural areas in Hofuf and Al Aba, and copulation was observed in May (Ross, 1993).
Remarks: This is a very common species encountered in farms across the study area.The yellowbellied gecko is rather common along the eastern region of Saudi Arabia.It is believed that it was introduced to Africa and Arabia (Carranza et al., 2021).It is usually found around human settlements and avoids extreme desert habitats.It was not reported from Al Hassa (Al-Sadoon, 2010), however, reported from walls of buildings in Al Aba and Al Jubail (Ross, 1993;Martens, 1996).It was found on palm trees looking for a prey, and becomes active at 28 °C and disappears as the temperature reaches 38 °C (Ross, 1993).
Remarks: The distribution of the Gulf short-fingered gecko extends across eastern Arabia including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, south Oman, Bahrain and to the east reaching Iran (Sindaco & Jeremčenko, 2008).This species was originally described from Al Khobar (Haas, 1957).It prefers saltencrusted flats known as "sabkha" along the coastal areas, and areas with windblown sand along with dunes and scarce vegetation cover.Metallinou et al. (2014) presented a distribution map for this species in eastern Arabia.
Remarks: The Middle Eastern short-fingered gecko has a wide range of distribution across the deserts of the Middle East (Carranza et al., 2021).It is one of the most common species in the sand deserts of Saudi Arabia (Arnold, 1986).In eastern Saudi Arabia, it was reported from Al Jubail (Martens, 1996) and Al Hassa (Al-Sadoon, 2010).
Remarks: This species was originally described from Dhahran (Haas, 1957).Slevin's short-fingered gecko has a wide range of distribution extending from the eastern Arabian Penisula, Kuwait, southern Iraq, reaching as far as southern deserts of Jordan (Sindaco & Jeremčenko, 2008).It was reported from two localities in Al Hassa (Al-Sadoon, 2010).
Remarks: The Arabian sand gecko was found in dried salt marshes, known as "sabkha".Its distribution range extends along eastern, central Saudi Arabia, eastern Arabia including Oman, United Arab Emirates and Qatar, Kuwait, Yemen, and southern Jordan (Pola et al., 2021).It was reported from Al Jubail (Martens, 1996) Family Sphaerodactylidae Pristurus rupestris Blanford, 1874 Fig. 4H Material examined: observed and photographed by J. Babbington from South Dhahran, 14.11.2021.
Remarks: This enigmatic species was the subject of several studies in past few years.Badiane et al. (2014) concluded that two clades of the Arabian form of this species occur in Arabia, one eastern clade around the Hajar Mountains in Oman and the United Arab Emirates, referred to as Pristurus rupestris, and clade two, Pristurus sp. 1, that describes populations of southwestern Oman, Yemen, the Red Sea mountains of Saudi Arabia, reaching as far as southern Jordan.Further molecular studies on this species along the Oman mountains revealed the presence of 14 candidate species within P. r. rupestris (Garcia-Porta et al., 2017).
We maintain the use of Pristurus rupestris for the eastern populations of the Blanford's semaphore gecko in the study area.It was reported from rocky escarpments near Riyadh (Tilbury, 1988).Both Martens (1996) and Al-Sadoon (2010) did not record this species from Al Jubail or Al Hassa.Ross (1990) gave an account on feeding, activity patterns, avoiding predators and tail signalling among individuals of this species in Taroot Island, eastern Saudi Arabia.
Remarks: This is a rather problematic species.Metallinou et al. (2015) referred to the Arabian populations as P. hasselquistii species complex clade A and B, whereas clade A refers to populations of western, central Saudi Arabia and Oman, while clade B indicates populations associated with the southwestern mountains of Aseer.Size and colour of specimens observed from eastern Saudi Arabia are very different from the typical P. hasselquistii.It was previously recorded from Al Dharan (Haas, 1957), and Al Hassa (Al-Sadoon, 2010).
Remarks: Originally, the Arabian populations of P. maculatus was referred to as the subspecies Ph. m. longicaudatus (Martens, 1996).The spotted toad-headed agama has a wide range of distribution along the eastern coast of Arabia.This species was previously reported from coastal sabkha near Al Jubail (Martens, 1996).One specimen was observed on a rock near a salt marsh near Al Hassa.
Morphological and ecological features, along with molecular studies suggested that Ph. longicaudatus is a distinct species (Solovyeva et al., 2014).Another molecular study indicated that Phrynocephalus maculatus is confined to the western part of the Zagros Mountains (Ebrahimipour et al., 2021).

Family Lacertidae
Acanthodactylus hardyi Haas, 1957Fig. 6A-D Material examined: EZC021, Tufaieh, 3.6.2023. EZC027, Josameen, 9.6.2023. EZC 32-34, Josameen, 9.6.2023. EZC 055, Al Ahsa National Park, 4.9.2023. Remarks: Haas (1957) described Acanthodactylus scutellatus hardyi from Hirmas station, north of Tabuk.Recent molecular studies showed that what was considered as Acanthodactylus scutellatus in the Middle East represents Acanthodactylus hardyi, while A. scutellatus is distributed across North Africa (Tamar et al., 2016).This species is quite common in Kuwait (Amr et al., 2021).Acanthodactylus hardyi was previously recorded W of Hofuf (Salvador, 1982).All previous records of A. scutellatus in Saudi Arabia should be considered as A. hardyi.Remarks: This is an African species that penetrated to the north along the coastal area of the Red Sea reaching around Umluj (Aloufi & Amr, 2015).It was reported from southwestern Saudi Arabia (Arnold, 1986;Schätti & Gasperetti, 1994), Kharj and near AI Ha'ir (Tilbury, 1988), around Riyadh, several localities in Al Hassa (Al-Sadoon, 1988, 2010).The short-necked skink is a viviparous species, inhabiting humid areas with relatively dense vegetation and sand areas with bush cover.This species is characterized by the presence of two keels on the dorsal scales, five upper labial scales anterior to the eye, whereas the first supraocular scale is in contact with the frontal scale (Carranza et al., 2021).
Six eggs were found in a female.This species prefers humid soil and vegetation cover as observed in farms.
Remarks: The Tessellated mabuya was reported from Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates (Carranza et al., 2021).This is the first record of this species to the herpetofauna of Saudi Arabia.It is considered as endemic species to southern Arabia.It is associated with farmlands with water resources and cultivated areas across its range (Carranza et al., 2021).It differs from T. brevicollis by having 4 upper labials anterior to the eye, whereas the first supraocular scale is not in contact with the frontal scale and the dorsal scales have three keels (Carranza et al., 2021).One examined female was found to have four eggs.

Remarks:
The southern grass mabuya has a distribution range extending from the eastern Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Iran, Armenia and southern Turkey (Sindaco & Jeremčenko, 2008).It was collected from irrigated and shaded areas with date palm trees in Al-Aba oasis near Al Jubail (Martens, 1996).Records from the eastern region includes Al Hassa and Hofuf (Arnold, 1986;Al-Sadoon, 2010).This species is characterized by having four upper labial scales anterior to the eye, three keels on the dorsal scales and with the first supraocular scale in contact with the frontal scale (Carranza et al., 2021).
Remarks: The Arabian sand skink is a sand dweller with distribution extending from the arid southern parts of Saudi Arabia to the east along eastern Arabia including Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, reaching as far as Kuwait (Arnold & Leviton, 1977;Carranza et al., 2021).It was collected from Al Jubail along sand sheets (Martens, 1996), and from several localities in Al Hassa (Al-Sadoon, 2010).Three species of sand skinks are known to occur in the Arabian Peninsula; Scincus mitranus Anderson, 1871, in eastern and southern Arabian Peninsula reaching northwards to southern Iraq and southeastern Iran, Scincus conirostris (Blanford, 1881) in Iran and northern Arabia, and Scincus hemprichii Wiegmann, 1837 from southwestern Saudi Arabia (Šmíd et al., 2021).was reported from Dhahran, Jafura desert and Abqaiq (Haas, 1957(Haas, , 1961;;Leviton & Anderson, 1967), Al Jubail in sandy areas with vegetation cover of Haloxylon sp., Calligonum sp. and Rhanterium epapposum (Martens, 1996), and from several localities in Al Hassa (Al-Sadoon, 2010).
The feeding behaviour of C. gasperettii was studied based on specimens collected around Riyadh (Al-Sadoon & Paray, 2016).Two species of rodents, Gerbillus cheesmani and Mus musculus were found in the stomach contents of this viper along with two species of reptiles; A. schmiditi and S. slevinii.

Hydrophis cyanocinctus Daudin, 1803
Material examined: KFUPM: 2 specimens from the vicinity of the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia, without date.

Remarks:
The annulated sea snake has a wide range of distribution extending along the Indo-West Pacific, the Arabian Gulf, reaching Japan (David & Ineich, 1999).It was reported from the coasts of all countries overlooking the Arabian Gulf (Castilla et al., 2017).

Discussion
The present study provides additional locality records for the herpetofauna of eastern Saudi Arabia, with a new record of Trachylepis tessellata to the herpetofauna of Saudi Arabia.Previously, Haas (1957Haas ( , 1961) ) listed several species from eastern Saudi Arabia.Two studies outlined the herpetofauna in localized areas in eastern Saudi Arabia, Al Jubail (Martens, 1996) and Al Hassa (Al-Sadoon, 2010) and reported 24 and 34 species respectively.For example, other species that were previously reported, but not found during the present study include Walterinnesia aegyptia from Ain Dar and Al Mishab (Haas, 1957), and from two localities in Al Hassa (Al-Sadoon, 2010).Eirenis arabica (=Eirenis coronella) was recorded from Abqaiq, Al Hassa (Haas, 1957(Haas, , 1961;;Al-Sadoon, 2010), and Indotyphlops braminus (Daudin, 1803) from Hufof (Gasperetti, 1988), in addition to other species.Table 2 shows a comparison of recorded reptiles from the eastern region of Saudi Arabia based on Al-Sadoon (2010) and Martens (1996).This brings the total of reported species from eastern Saudi Arabia to 49 species, including one amphibian, one freshwater turtle, three marine turtles, 28 lizards, one amphisbaenian, one varanid, and 14 snakes.According to habitats, two species; Ph. arabicus and T. arabicus were restricted to dry salt marshes "sabkha".The majority of collected species are sand dwelling species including Ph. arabicus, S. doriae, S. slevini, C. gasperetti, D. zarudnyi, E. jayakari, A. hardyi, M. moilensis, and S. mitranus.Freshwater habitats host two species that are dependent on permanent waterbodies; P. ridibundus and M. caspica.Marine habitats are exclusive to the three marine snakes and the hawksbill sea turtle.
The study area is void of rocky mountains, instead, remains of corals and seabed deposits can be seen in Shadgam limestone mountains.However, some rock boulders are scattered within the area, making it possible for rock dwelling species to bask during daytime such as Ph.longicaudatus and T. persicus.Several species were found in association with human habitations including houses and farms.These include C. scabrum, H. flaviviridis, T. brevicollis, T. tessellata, and H. septemtaeniatus.
The islands of Saudi Arabia were found to host some reptilian species such as H. septemtaeniatus, C. scabrum, M. moilensis and P. schokari.Soorae (2004) reported nine species of reptiles from 13 islands in the United Arab Emirate (UAE).Also, Bourquin (2011) recorded 13 species from Sir Bani Yas Island (UAE).Pseudoceramodactylus khobarensis was recorded from Al Aaliya and Al Saflia islands in Qatar (Valdeón et al., 2013).In this regard, further studies on the reptiles of the Saudi islands should be conducted.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Map of the study area showing studied sites.

Figure 7 .
Figure 7. A. Trachylepis brevicollis with two keeled scales.B. Lateral view of Trachylepis brevicollis showing the upper labial and the first supraocular scale in contact with the frontal scale.C. Trachylepis tessellata with three keeled scales.D. Lateral view of Trachylepis tessellata showing the upper labial and the first supraocular scale not in contact with the frontal scale.E. Heremites septemtaeniatus with three keeled scales.F. Lateral view of Heremites septemtaeniatus showing the upper labial and the first supraocular scale in contact with the frontal scale.

Table 1 .
Localities from which materials were reported.

Table 2 .
Herpetofaunal comparison of previous studies and the current study.