Color in life plain orange with slightly darker rings around tail; when preserved, pale orange with tiny dark brown flecks on the nape of the neck and all over in some specimens. Diminutive in size. Anal fin small or absent. Rings on trunk 12; on tail 28-29. Body fleshy with inferior and ventral trunk ridges reduced to separated cross-shaped spicules embedded in the skin. Nuchal plate rounded without a raised coronet. Snout length ca. 30% in HL. Head depth ca. 50% in HL. No spines above the eye. Trunk depth (between the 9th and 10th trunk rings) ca. 7% in SL (female) and 10-15% in SL (male). The angles of certain body ridges sometimes developed into rounded tubercles (distinctly fewer and less developed compared with H. bargibanti) (Ref. 47053).