This species is distinguished from its congeners in the Pseudojuloides elongatus complex by the following characters: no predorsal scales and with a large canine tooth on the corner of the mouth; similar to Pseudojuloides elongatus where It shares overlapping or nearly overlapping meristic counts and morphometric proportions with but differs in having the males greenish yellow to yellowish orange, the upper body strongly overlain in black, with 3-5 rows of metallic blue spots, while females are unmarked and are pinkish orange to olivaceous (Ref. 123183).