It sleeps curled up inside closed banana leaves, hence its name, although it also uses the leaves of other large plants and even human structures. It is one of the smallest and most widespread bats in Africa, found from tropical forest to open savannah. Rival males can hold genuine ultrasonic vocal duels of up to twenty minutes, inaudible to the human ear, which sometimes end in an aerial chase.
Very small bat with dark brown to reddish-brown fur, short rounded ears and a short, curved tragus. Flies close to the ground, almost always 2-5 m up. It differs from other small vesper bats of the region in its size, among the smallest of the family in Africa, and in its habit of roosting in rolled banana leaves or the leaves of other large-leaved plants.
It emits short, steeply sloping frequency-modulated (FM) pulses 4-5 milliseconds long, with most of the energy concentrated around 43 kHz. On the detector screen it appears as a short, slanting trace, very different from the long, flat pulse of a rhinolophid. It can be confused acoustically with other small vesper bats of the same region, such as some Pipistrellus species, and reliable separation between them by sonogram often requires comparison with local reference libraries, since frequencies overlap considerably between species. The roost is another clear sign: banana leaves or those of other large plants rolled up on themselves, with small stains of dark guano and urine inside the cone formed by the leaf.
Lowland and montane tropical forest, open savannah and cultivated areas with trees and large-leaved plants, across much of sub-Saharan Africa.
Small flying insects, caught in low flight, close to the ground or water.
Emerges to feed shortly after sunset and rarely strays more than 100 metres from its roost. Males use long, complex ultrasonic calls of up to eight syllables to communicate with rivals, and both sexes give variable alarm calls when disturbed.
The species maintains a large, stable population over most of its range, with no evidence of widespread decline. This is thanks to its habitat tolerance and good adaptation to human-modified landscapes, including plantations and built-up areas with vegetation.
Local loss of the large-leaved vegetation used as roosts, and metal contamination in foraging areas near sewage treatment plants.
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