Snout pointed; naked area on snout confined to median-ventral strip, otherwise head surfaces completely scaled. Spinules on scales slender, conical to lanceolate, arranged in convergent rows. Color when fresh gray with violet hue on trunk and lower jaw; silvery reflections on gill cover, parts of the suborbital, and trunk and tail below the lateral line; pelvic fins and membrane between spinous dorsal ray and first segmented ray black; pectoral and median fins otherwise dusky; oral and branchial cavities mostly black.