Western Pacific: Christmas Island and the northwest shelf reefs of Australia in the eastern Indian Ocean to Kiribati, north to southern Japan. Recently reported from Tonga.

Body orangish brown with faint light bluish to lavender iridescence on lower head and thorax; darkly-edged orbit; iris yellowish with a blackish blotch dorsally and ventrally. Eyes large. Preopercular margin smooth. Blackish spot on dorsal and anal fins confined at rear base; upper and lower edges of caudal peduncle and fin blackish; wedge-shaped black spot on pectoral base. With prominent pores of lateralis system on head.

Inhabits coral rich areas of outer reef passes and slopes. Occurs singly or in small groups near the bottom.