[1] The description of the species was first published in 1959 by David H. Johnson, the result of examination of mammal specimens the author collected on a 1948 scientific expedition backed by American and Australia institutions.

[8] Nyctophilus arnhemensis is found inhabiting mangrove, woodland and forest, and favours roosts in thick vegetation, beneath loose cover near a tree trunk.

[1] The distribution range is at tropical regions across the north of the continent, near fresh or saline waters, at coastal areas and offshore island.

[1] However, as with many vespertilionid bats of northern Australia, the population seem to have become geographically isolated by the Gulf of Carpentaria, which lacks caves and suitable trees for roosts.

N. arnhemensis remains well hidden beneath dead fronds of the pandanus and frequently relocates, for reason of hygiene or evading a potential predator.

[1] The bats are vulnerable to the consequences of altered land use, to agricultural and pastoralist activities, primarily the removal of their roosting and foraging habitat.