 It grows to a size of in length.This dottyback has only been known from Indonesia and Malaysia, but was recently recorded in the Davao Gulf in the southern Philippines.The specific name honours the ichthyologist Gerald R. Allen of the Western Australian Museum in Perth who collected the type specimen and provided photographs of this species which Gill used in his description, as well as being in recognition of Allen's contribution to the knowledge of Indo-Pacific fish and of the support Allen gave Gill in is work on the Pseudochromidae.