This species has the usual color and patterns of the brown Barred Hamlet but with some distinguishing markings: a pair of dark rounded spots found at the base of the caudal fin, above and below the midline, usually symmetrical, present on all stages, including adults; a series of four dark brown to black spots at the upper rear body with one smaller rounded spot at the dorsal edge of the narrow mid-body bar (fourth bar), a larger oval blotch, vertically elongated at the anterior upper end of the fifth bar, a smaller flattened spot at the rear upper edge of the fifth bar below the base of the last dorsal-fin rays, and a narrow squared blotch on the upper caudal peduncle filling the space between two thin blue bars (not the full width of the sixth bar); characters not frequent on Caribbean Barred Hamlets, but associated with this species and H. floridae, include the bar under the eye being orange, even when the body bars are brown, plus a dusky pelvic fin (Ref. 91468).