This species is distinguished from its congeners by the following set of characters: body scaleless; frontal plate with a pair of small, sub-dermal spines just behind eyes, median sub-dermal ethmoidal spine in front of eyes; skin is rather thick; a large posterior mandibular pore behind end of maxilla; snout with a cartilaginous ethmoidal spine; opercular spine is hidden, no preopercular spine; anterior gill arch with 3 developed rakers, almost equal in length to developed rakers; pectoral peduncle is prolonged; no fangs on dentigerous bones, 3 to several tooth rows on palatines; vertebrae, precaudal 14-15, total 55-58; fin rays, D 82-93, A 54-60 and pectoral 19-22; otolith length to height, 2-2.1, otolith length to colliculum length variable, 2.5-3.3 (Ref. 93007).