Southern little yellow-eared bat

The southern little yellow-eared bat (Vampyressa pusilla) is a small frugivorous leaf-nosed bat of the family Phyllostomidae, found in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. It was once treated as including the northern little yellow-eared bat, Vampyressa thyone, as a subspecies, but a 2003 study confirmed that the two are distinct species, and the southern species is now considered monotypic. It is very small, among the smallest in its family, weighing about 11 to 15 g with a forearm of 29 to 37 mm, and has pale brownish fur and a pair of white facial stripes. It lives in well-conserved semideciduous Atlantic Forest, semi-humid cerrado and gallery forest in the Pantanal, and makes small tents from the leaves of plants such as Heliconia and Philodendron, in which only one to three bats roost. Droppings containing fig seeds were found near feeding tents, so it may be a fig specialist like its sister species. The IUCN lists it as Data Deficient.