This rodent with a distinctly spiny coat is recorded from forests in Misiones, northeastern Argentina. Its wild specimens are few, and its natural history remains poorly known.
The subadult male described in 2015 had short, close fur with a distinctly bristly texture, darker along the midline and paler underneath. Its rounded ears stood out; the tail was uniformly brown and ended in a short tuft of dark hairs about 6 mm long.
On 29 September 2012, researchers trapped one subadult male at ground level in Parque Provincial Urugua-í, Misiones. The trap was at the edge of an abandoned road where about 12-year-old secondary growth met tall grass; nearby forest included trees over 25 m tall and patches of bamboo. Its stomach contained bee remains, probably from a honeybee, and small hard filaments thought to be gnawed fruit endocarp. These remains from one animal suggest possible foods but do not establish the species' usual diet.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.