This shrew occurs in the southern Ecuadorian Andes. Records come from montane forest, shrubland, and páramo.
BioWeb Ecuador describes a dark-gray back and paler, silvery underside, with a long pointed head, short ears mostly hidden by fur, and a short, slightly bicolored tail.
Shrews from Ecuador’s Cajas highlands ate beetles, spiders and caterpillars. Beetle wing cases and spider legs were among recognisable stomach fragments, revealing links between the small predators and invertebrates around them.
The 1992 paper reported fieldwork from 1981–1987 and preliminary stomach analyses of five of twelve captures. Traps were placed near runs and holes and checked morning and evening. Recognisable remains helped identify the prey eaten.
Captures came from montane forest, Polylepis woodland and streamside scrub; none came from grassland. Within the highland landscape, the survey found these small predators in sites with trees or shrubs.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
In Cajas, none was trapped in Polylepis woodland whose ground cover had been destroyed by cattle and firewood collection, whereas captures occurred in adjacent intact woodland. The 1992 author identified sensitivity to habitat disturbance.