A small mouse recorded in Andean highland grasslands and mountain slopes. Its back is grayish to yellow-brown, its underside paler, and its tail is two-colored.
The back is grayish or olive-brown with black hairs mixed in. The underside is grayer, a pale ring surrounds the eye, and the tail is brown above and white below.
In Peru it is recorded in high puna grassland with large Festuca tussocks; Bolivian records also include the high puna and eastern Andean slopes, including cloud forest.
There are a few white hairs on the chin.
Total length, including the tail, averaged about 14 cm in the specimens described.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.