This spiny mouse is recorded in dry miombo woodland and wooded grassland. In the original description, measured specimens were smaller and lighter than A. ngurui, with longer tails and hind feet. A 2019 phylogenetic study assigns populations in central and western Tanzania, west of Lake Malawi, and Zambia to this species.
Specimens measured for the 2011 description were smaller and lighter than A. ngurui, but had longer tails and hind feet and a more slender skull.
The IUCN assessment describes it as nocturnal and records it around rocks, rivers, woodland and wooded grassland. The 2011 description reports open-canopy dry miombo woodland and wooded grassland around Muze. The nearby Lake Rukwa wetland plain had acacias and elephant grass; parts were used for maize and rice when sampling took place.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.