Matapalo broad-nosed bat

The Matapalo broad-nosed bat, Platyrrhinus matapalensis, is a small leaf-nosed bat from the western slopes of the Andes in Ecuador and Peru, and possibly north-west Colombia. It was described in 2005 when the western populations of Heller's broad-nosed bat were split from the eastern ones, which kept the name Platyrrhinus helleri. The holotype was collected in July 1954 at Zarumilla, Peru, by the ornithologist Celestino Kalinowski, and the name comes from the Matapalo District. The bat is small for its genus, with a forearm of 37 to 39 millimetres, light brown back fur with tricolored hairs, a striped face, a narrow dorsal stripe, and a densely fringed uropatagium. It prefers undisturbed lowland forest between about 50 and 680 metres elevation. The IUCN rates it Near Threatened because habitat loss has been so severe that it is close to qualifying as Vulnerable.