It is a solitary nocturnal, terrestrial animal, living mostly in dry habitats, outside of rainforest regions.

The carapace consists of two immobile plates, separated by six or seven movable bands, which are connected to each other by a fold of hairless skin.

The carapace is mostly blackish, hairless and with the scales of the anterior edge of the movable bands not notably different in colour from the rest of the dorsum.

Lateral scutes have dark blackish-pink centres only slightly discernible from the rest of the carapace, but never as obviously pale as in the nine-banded armadillo.

Scutes on the movable bands are triangular in shape, but those on the main plates are rounded.