This species is distinguished from its congeners by having a darker background color, ranging from dark-brown to reddish-brown (vs. light-brown to dark-brown in S. guggenheim and S. occulta), with higher number of tooth rows with 24 vertical tooth rows in both upper and lower jaws, tooth formula 12-12/12-12; (vs. 9-9 to 10-10/9-9 to 11-11 in S. occulta, and 9-9 to 11-11/9-9 to 11-11 in S. guggenheim), and with anterior half of pectoral fin margin convex (vs. anterior margin of pectoral fin straight); differs from S. guggenheim and S. occulta with the interspiracular surface covered by small and homogeneous dorsal denticles, without enlarged denticles (vs. a pair of enlarged, conical and morphologically distinct dermal denticles between spiracles in S. occulta and S. guggenheim); differs from S. occulta by lacking blackish irregular small spots surrounding white spots on dorsal surface (i.e. absence of ocelli-like markings); differs further from S. guggenheim by having the dorsal midline denticles on trunk morphologically similar to other trunk denticles and barely organized in a row (vs. dorsal midline row of enlarged denticles morphologically distinct from other trunk denticles), the denticles close to origin of pectoral fin morphologically homogeneous, similar to other pectoral denticles (vs. presence of a pair, or more, enlarged and morphologically distinct denticles from other pectoral denticles, in S. guggenheim) (Ref. 95520).