Hairy yellow-shouldered bat

The hairy yellow-shouldered bat (Sturnira erythromos) is a species of bat in the family Phyllostomidae native to South America, with no recognised subspecies. It is a small bat, about 5.5 centimetres long and weighing around 16 grams, with soft dark brown hair, almost black wings, a short and almost hairless snout and a dark patch of fur on the forehead. Despite its name, only a few individuals have yellow fur on the shoulders. It has no tail, almost no uropatagium and a simple, broad, short nose-leaf. The species is native to the Andes, from northern Argentina to Venezuela, living mainly in tropical cloud forests and high altitude rain forests and in most of its range between 1,135 and 3,500 metres. It is frugivorous, favouring the fruit of pepper plants and Solanum species, and nocturnal, roosting by day in hollow trees. It can lower its body temperature when the air falls below 25 degrees Celsius. In Argentina breeding begins in July, with a single young born between November and January.