Color varies greatly, ranging from reddish brown to deep black above and paler below.
These bats have a peculiar, complex, nose-leaf expansion of the skin surrounding the nostrils. It consists of three parts. The lower part, which is horseshoe-shaped, covers the upper lip, surrounds the nostrils, and has a central notch in the lower edge. Above the nostrils, the appendage is a pointed, erect structure, the lancet, attached only by its base. Both the horseshoe and the lancet are flattened from front to back.