It has black to gray-brown fur, long and soft on the upper parts and somewhat shorter underneath the body, with a grizzled appearance.

[4] Later studies have confirmed that all these are distinct and not closely related to the Indian giant flying squirrel; placing them together would result in a strongly polyphyletic "species".

[6][9] In 1900, a new subspecies called Petaurista philippensis lylei was discovered and named after Harold Lyle, the British consul in Nan, by J. Lewis Bonhote who originally classified it as its own species.

[11] The species is native to China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Squirrels were shown to be somewhat tolerant of disturbance when foraging, and to exploit food resources at the forest edge, including exotic planted species.