No copies of this work may be distributed electronically outside of the subscribed institution, in whole or in part, without written permission from the JHU Press . The fur is soft, woolly, and sometimes silky. The upper parts vary from buffy or gray to reddish brown, while the underparts are whitish, often tinged with yellow. The ears are thin, membranous, and naked. The eyes are large, lustrous, and surrounded by dark rings.
Females have two pairs of mammae.
These dwarf lemurs live in forests. They are nocturnal, spending the daylight hours in globular nests that they construct of twigs and leaves in hollow tree trunks or in the tops of trees. They are squirrel-like in their movements, scampering about their arboreal heights on all fours, but they sit up to eat, holding the food in their hands. Those living in areas subject to periodic dry seasons store up quantities of fat in the basal portion of the tail during the wet season and estivate when food is scarce. Individuals could lose 100 grams of body weight during estivation.