It is found in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and possibly Djibouti.

[1][2] Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, dry savanna, and moist savanna, grassland, bushveld and Acacia woodland, and though recorded from more arid areas is absent from desert regions.

Food items include beetles, lacewings, moths, mosquitoes, plant-sucking bugs and a variety of other flying insects.

[3] The genome of a close relative of human Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus has been found in a specimen of Laephotis capensis (previously erroneously assumed to be Neoromicia zuluensis).

[4] There is increasing evidence that bats may carry a wide diversity of viruses which they may pass on to other animals or human beings.