This squirrel occurs in forests of southern and central Sri Lanka. Three stripes along its back and a deep-red underside are distinctive.
The back is dark, dingy olive with a possible ashy-gray tint. Three longitudinal stripes can be bright yellowish orange. The tail tip is black, a red line runs along the tail underside, and the underside is deep red.
The IUCN assessment describes it as diurnal and arboreal in montane evergreen forest and rainforest. A survey around Sinharaja recorded it more often in unlogged than logged forest, and not in abandoned areas or plantations; these are results from that survey.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.