It is an uncommon fish and is known only from four specimens from Pagbilao in the Philippines, although photographs of individuals in the Ryukyu Islands, Mozambique and the Red Sea show that it has a wide distribution.

The body is covered with small spinules except around the eyes and mouth, the gill openings, the fin bases and the sides of the caudal peduncle.

It is similar in appearance to another rare species, Arothron carduus, which has narrow dark-coloured convoluted lines on a white background.

This raises the question of why such a sizeable fish had not been observed before; a certain minimum population size would have had to exist for the species to be viable.

[3] The description was made on the basis of the markings alone, and the confusion will be resolved when a taxonomic revision is done on this genus, including a genetic study.