Within the genus Carollia, this species is the most specialized in fruits of Piper (Thies and Kalko 2004). It forages near moist areas, being taken most frequently in tropical evergreen forests. It uses the understory vegetation levels, where it concentrates its feeding on the fruits of shrubs and treelets, especially the slender green, candle like fruits of plants of the genus Piper. Due to its high numbers, this bat is one of the most important seed dispersers for Piper and many other plants with small fruits. In Panama, birth peaks occur in March to April and July to August (Wilson 1979, Eisenberg 1989, Emmons and Feer 1997). Thies et al. (2006) report that the activity of this species is not affected by moonlight conditions, and that only strong rain reduces the time it spends flying. If the expected home range is similar to that of other species in the C. castanea complex, it would be close to 6.8 +/- 2.2, as reported by Bonaccorso et al. (2006) for Carollia sp. (listed as C. castanea but most probably the unnamed species indicated by Solari and Baker 2006) in eastern Ecuador.

This species occurs throughout Honduras to northwestern Colombia, east to Venezuela and Guyana and south to western Ecuador and northern Peru (Solari and Baker 2006, McLellan and Koopman 2008). This definition is more restricted that the one used by Simmons (2005), which included populations now recognized as a new species, C. benkeithi (Solari and Baker 2006).

The species occurs in protected areas throughout its range.