This brush-furred rat is recorded in southwestern Ethiopia. A 2019 checklist treats it as Lophuromys brunneus. The coat description is limited to a Beletta specimen reported in 1998 under the older name L. flavopunctatus brunneus.
A Beletta specimen assigned in the 1998 study to L. flavopunctatus brunneus had a blackish-brown back speckled with pale hair rings, a rusty abdomen, and a lighter, yellowish underside.
A 2019 Ethiopian checklist reports the species as common at forest edges in the southwest, including Beletta and Chingawa, and records many captures in bean fields around Wushwush.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.