This species is an aerial insectivore that feeds on many scarab beetles and moths. This species prefers to roost in damp caves, often with several other species including Pteronutus parnellii and various phyllostomid bats. Lesser naked-backed bats shows a broad tolerance for habitat types, they occur in moist to seasonally dry habitats (Adams 1989). It frequently occurs in dry deciduous thorn forest, but they range into wet evergreen forest. Within these habitats, P. davyi selects the darker recesses of hot, humid caves and mines (Bateman and Vaughan 1974). Its distribution may be limited by availability of roost sites. Often forages in open spaces (Adams 1989, Emmons and Feer 1997, Handley 1976, Reid 2009, J. Molinari pers. comm.).

This species has a disjunct distribution, with an isolated population occurring in northwestern Peru, also from northern Colombia and Venezuela to southern Baja California, southern Sonora, and Nuevo León (Mexico), and found on Trinidad and the southern Lesser Antilles (Simmons 2005). Records from central Colombia and northeastern Brazilian are erroneous (Patton and Gardner 2008).

This species occurs in several protected areas throughout its range. The species probably is not in much direct danger from man's development, due to the undesirability of the unusually hot, humid caves they favored (Adams 1989).