This species is distinguished from its congeners by the following characters: with branch of the temporal sensory canal at sphenotic, which gives rise to the supraorbital canal, with two pores; upper tooth plate of branchial arch with three series of teeth; the area at the corner of the mouth, ventral to the maxillary barbel, with a small, triangular fleshy flap, which may variably present a small prolongation at its posterior tip, forming a short barbel-like structure; with a conspicuous dark brown or black patch transversally crossing the orbit, forming a mask-like blotch; absence of a distinct color pattern along midline of flank; with dorsolateral body plates only with small, irregular, rounded or vertically elongated dark brown or black blotches; ground color of plates typically light yellow or beige; absence of a relatively large, conspicuous dark patch on anterior portion of dorsal fin; with dorso- and ventrolateral body plates with pale yellow or beige background coloration, with dark blotches on flanks conspicuously standing out from the ground color of plates; with a conspicuous mask-like blotch; with ossified portion of hypobranchial 2 ranging from moderately developed, with size similar to cartilaginous portion, to well developed, around twice size of cartilaginous portion, even in smaller specimens with up to about 4.2 cm SL (Ref. 138496).