One has the head and body pale brown in background colour but the body is almost entirely covered in small dark red-brown spots, one on each scale, these frequently form clusters shaped like the paw-prints and these form saddle-like blotches along the back and elongate blotches on the flanks.

The fourth colour phase is bicolored, pale brown anteriorly, changing abruptly to dark from the soft rayed part of the dorsal fin.

It is a protogynous hermaphrodite forming small, short-lived spawning aggregations, which may be ten to a few hundred strong over offshore reefs with high relief along the edge of the continental shelf.

These take place from February until July in United States Atlantic waters and in the Gulf of Mexico, peaking from March to the middle of May.

[1] Scamp are the most numerous grouper in areas of living Oculina reefs at depths between 70 and 100 metres (230 and 330 ft) off the eastern coast of Florida.

[4] It has been suggested that scamp prefer areas of high topographic complexity as they are relatively small in size and they can use overhangs, ledges and caves to shelter from predators like sharks and greater amberjack (Seriola dumerili).

[2] The scamp grouper was first formally described in 1884 as Mycteroperca falcata phenax by the American ichthyologist David Starr Jordan (1851-1931) and the biologist and mathematician Joseph Swain (1857-1927) with the type locality given as Key West and Pensacola in Florida.