[3] The jocotoco antpitta's specific epithet honors the ornithologist Robert S. Ridgely, who took part in the initial discovery of this species in 1997.

[3] Grallaria antpittas are a "wonderful group of plump and round antbirds whose feathers are often fluffed up...they have stout bills [and] very short tails".

Both sexes have a dark red to crimson reddish brown iris, a black bill, and blue-gray legs and feet.

[3][5][4][6][excessive citations] The jocotoco antpitta is known only from a very small number of locations in southeastern Ecuador and adjacent Peru.

It was originally believed to be limited to the upper Chinchipe River drainage in Zamora-Chinchipe, Ecuador, but in 2006 a population was discovered in Cordillera del Cóndor in Cajamarca, Peru.

[3][7] It inhabits steep slopes within wet, dense, mossy forest with Chusquea bamboo stands and silvery-leaved Cecropia trees.

The first nest discovered was a deep cup made mostly from decaying leaves lined with fine rootlets and fern stems.

The jocotoco antpitta's song is "a slow series of 6-10 (or more) identical notes produced at 0.5-0.6 kHz, and delivered at 1-2 second intervals".

The Tapichalaca Biological Reserve was established in 1998 by the Fundación de Conservación Jocotoco to protect the species' core range, and it also occurs at the far southern end of Podocarpus National Park.

However, "[m]uch of the range is threatened by logging and gold mining, including areas within Podocarpus National Park".