It is native to Africa, where it occurs in Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

[1] It was described in 1917 by American mammalogist Joel Asaph Allen.

The holotype used to describe the species had been collected by Herbert Lang and James Chapin.

Chapin and Lang first encountered the species in Medje, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Unlike Allen's spotted bat, which is similar in appearance, it does have a calcar.