It is endemic to Papua New Guinea and only known from a single specimen collected from "Deutsch-Neu-Guinea", in what now is Madang Province.

[4] The holotype was collected by Ernst Tappenbeck when he explored the areas west of Astrolabe Bay (south of Madang) in 1896 and along the river Ramu in 1898.

The original species description, written few years after the specimen was collected, describes coloration as follows:[3] "Upperside brownish white, gray spotted.

A dark brown stripe passes horizontally from the posterior corner of the eye to above the eardrum, but not beyond the head.

Snout and face pale to between the eyes, posterior of head dark brown, the two colors sharply separated from one another.