[1] When seen from above, L. platycephala resembles L. exotica, in the soft, weakly articulated body and the posteriorly narrowing outline at the back tropics.

They are however so distributed in the present species as to form a distinct, broad, blackish median stripe on both the thorax and abdomen, and on the thorax also a series of large, somewhat rectangular obliquely placed blackish spots at the junction of the epimeral portion of the segments with the main portion.

Elsewhere on the upper parts, as well as below and on the legs, the minute pigment spots are more thinly scattered and do not much obscure the strongly yellowish ground color.

The thoracic segments differ from those of L. exotica in having the epimera smaller and completely fused with the main portion in both sexes.

The styloid appendages of the pleopoda of the male are very straight and slender and reach nearly to the end of the telson.

In the female the uropoda, inclusive of the inner branch, which is the longest, project beyond the telson a distance about equal to two-thirds the length of the body and head; this measurement is exclusive of a fairly long movable spine or bristle borne on the end of the inner branch.

The type specimen is located at the American Museum of Natural History[4] The habitat of this species is deadwood in damp forest.

[2] More recent observations aggregated in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility suggest that the species can also be found in Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela[3]