This species is distinguished by the following characters: colour of live individual is lemonpeel yellow with blue margined gill operculum, spine and fins; conspicuous blue iris and faint blue eye ring surrounding the eye; colour in alcohol is uniformly yellowish with dark eye and dark posterior dorsal, anal and caudal fin margins; differs from C. flavissima (and 2 other species of this specis complex) by nucleotide quasisynapomorphies at the CO1 locus, these include G at both nucleotide sites 247 and 366 of the gene (Ref. 116591).