These circular disks act as suction cups, allowing the bats to cling onto and move along smooth surfaces.

[2] Spix's disk-winged bat is distributed in the nations of Venezuela, Tobago, Trinidad, Suriname, Peru, Panama, Mexico, Guyana, Guatemala, Honduras, French Guiana, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Belize, and Bolivia.

[1] It has a patchy distribution but a very wide range, and it is considered to be a least-concern species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Whereas other species of bats are capable of aggregating in large numbers, hanging head-down by their toes from cave ceilings and hollow trees, T. tricolor is adapted to roosting in furled leaves, and its populations may be limited by the abundance of plants with this feature.

[2] Spix’s disk-winged bat has a white or pale yellow underbelly and a reddish-brown to black dorsal surface.

The two groups represent an occurrence of the parallel evolution of a feature, but the two forms of adhesive anatomy are utilized differently.

[2] The Madagascar sucker-footed bat (Myzopoda aurita) has similar sucker anatomy, but produces suction differently.