This species is distinguished from all its congeners by having a small group of plates posterior to the urogenital pore (vs. plates absent) and by having a broad, dark brown bar on the first pre-dorsal plate, which occupies the entire plate, reaching the preopercle, and sometimes reaching the second pre-dorsal plate (vs. no bar except in S. evansii); differs further, except from S. euacanthagenys, by having the abdominal surface with scattered, very small plates leaving naked areas (vs. abdomen totally naked or abdominal region partially to completely covered with larger plates); differs S. euacanthagenys and S. fimbriata by having 5 transverse dark brown bars on the dorsal region (vs. 4, and 3 in S. curvispina, 6 in S. caquetae); differs from S. caquetae, S. evansii, S. fimbriata, S. nudiventris, S. tuira by having preanal plates (vs. absent) (Ref. 119417).