This highland rice rat is known from mountain forests in Guatemala and southern Mexico. MDD currently places it in Casiomys; older sources use names including Oryzomys rhabdops.
The back is pale ochre to tawny, darkened by black hairs. The underside is a lighter ochre-buff.
It is nocturnal and mainly terrestrial. It inhabits cool, wet cloud forest and pine-oak woodland, including sites near water.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.