This species is distinguished from its congeners by the following characters: with a short, composite midlateral stripe consisted of 3 small, rounded translucent windows peppered with chromatophores (vs. numerous windows in stercorarius, moretoniensis and continuous translucent stripe in antongil) and it is confined to the midflank (vs. extending most to entire the length of the flank in congeners); further distinguished from stercorarius, moretoniensis by a pigmentation pattern above the lateral midline comprised of larger rounded blotches and markings (vs. smaller sinuous lines and markings forming a vermiculate pattern); differs from moretoniensis, antongil, by a shallower body; lower jaw deep and convex in lateral view (vs. mostly straight in congeners) and forms an angle of between 60°-70° to horizontal (vs. less than 45° in congeners) (Ref. 120644).