[2] This medium-sized bat has a gray coat with a pale white stripe running down the middle of the back.

Primarily a frugivore, it may supplement its diet with insects, flower parts, pollen, and nectar.

Its common name comes from its curious behavior of constructing tents out of large, fan-shaped leaves.

Carnivores, frugivores, and bats that specialize on blood or nectar and pollen are all represented in this family.

Commonly known as the American leaf-nosed bats, phyllostomids are characterized by a special structure consisting of a leaf-shaped projection extending up from a “horseshoe-shaped” base attached to their upper lip.

These bats send their echolocation calls out their nostrils, and so the noseleaf may help direct the sounds that they emit.

[8] Uroderma bilobatum is medium in size, weighing between 13 and 20 g with a body length of 59–69 mm.

[5] This facemask may serve a camouflage purpose by making their eyes less obvious to would-be predators.

[5] These bats are found in Central America from Oaxaca and Veracruz, Mexico to Peru, Bolivia, and southeastern Brazil.

[5][8] In Costa Rica, pregnant females move into coconut groves in July, just at the beginning of the wet season, and exhibit synchrony in parturition.

They bite through the midrib or vein of a large leaf so that it folds in half to form an inverted-V-shaped shelter.

Eventually, the leaf dries up and breaks off from the plant, and they have to construct a new one, a feat that takes them several nights to accomplish.

[7][14] U. bilobatum prefers the large, single leaves of banana trees and pinnate or palmate palms.

[8] The tents may also provide protection from predators that target typical bat roosts such as caves and hollow trees.

However, the disadvantages of such a lifestyle include the energetic costs that the bats have to expend in the creation of new tents every few months and the decreased protection from the weather offered by such roosts.