This species is distinguished from its congeners by the following set of characters: frenum of rostral cap visible, folded at lateral edge of mouth and continuous with sub-toral fold; frenum of upper lip covered by rostral cap; presence of dark humeral spot covering 4th and 5th lateral-line scales extending to scales immediately above and below lateral-line scales; lacking mid-lateral stripe on the flank; 32-34 lateral-line scales; 10-11 pre-dorsal scales; 4½ scale rows above the lateral line, and between anal-fin origin and lateral line; 3½-4scale rows between pelvic-fin origin and lateral line; 16 circumpeduncular scales; 3 to 4 scales between the anus and anal-fin origin; 28-29 rakers on the first gill arch; and the four sequences each of the coi and cytb genes (distance ranges from 4.1% to 12.7% and 7.2% to 15.6% in the coi and cytb genes, respectively) (Ref. 138805).