Throughout its range this species is found in varied habitats from arid areas to humid zones. It roosts in caves, old tunnels, caves created due to mud excavation, old forts, dungeons (C. Srinivauslu pers. comm.), large wells, hollows and crowns of trees, eaves of houses. It roosts in colonies from single animals to hundreds of bats. It is an early and fast flyer and feeds on cockroaches and beetles. There are two breeding seasons-one in mid January and the other in mid May (Bates and Harrison 1997).

This species is widespread in South Asia and Southeast Asia. In South Asia, it has been recorded from Bangladesh (location unknown), India (Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal), Nepal (location unknown), and Sri Lanka (Eastern, Northern, Uva and Western provinces) (Bates and Harrison 1997, Khan 2001, Srinivasulu and Srinivasulu 2005, Srinivasulu and Srinivasulu 2012). In Southeast Asia, it ranges from Myanmar in the west, into northern Thailand and Cambodia. It is present in Indonesia on the islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa and Flores and is also present on the island of Borneo (Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia). It has been recently recorded from Lao PDR (Douangboubpha et al. 2014). It has been recorded to occur up to 1,200 m asl.

In South Asia, although there are no direct conservation measures in place, it is likely to be present in most of the protected areas in peninsular India (C. Srinivasulu pers. obs.). In Southeast Asia, in view of its wide range it probably occurs in some protected areas. Further studies are needed into the taxonomy, distribution, abundance, reproduction and ecology of this species.