[1] Mortelliti, from the Sapienza University of Rome, who discovered the new species, named it after Christina Thwaites, another member of the expedition.

This species is distinguished from other members of its genus found on Sulawesi by its small size, its soft reddish-brown upper parts, greyish-buff underparts and long, bicoloured tail with a tufted tip.

[1] Christine's margareta rat is known from a single specimen collected in the Mekongga mountain range in the rainforest at an altitude of about 1,537 m (5,043 ft).

Much of Sulawesi has been logged for timber and to make way for cacao plantations, and the locality of capture of the new species was in secondary forest.

It seems likely that this species exists in a number of separate subpopulations and occupies a total area of less than 1,000 square kilometres (390 sq mi).