DESCRIPTION OF HOLOTYPE. The shell is rather small, slender, fusiform, relatively solid, white, consists of protoconch and almost 7 teleoconch whorls. The protoconch consists of 3.5 whorls, the tip is small and papillate. Initial embryonal whorls are smooth, the two last whorls angled, with a cord-like peripheral keel, the second weaker keel encircles the lower suture. The spire is tall, occupies about 0.4 of the shell height. Definitive whorls are angled at the shoulder and in the lower part, the subsutural slope is weakly concave or almost flat. The sutures are clear, shallow, slightly wavy. The entire shell surface is densely and minutely granulated, but the granulation more or less disappears on prominent parts of the sculpture. Growth lines are thin and irregularly elevated. Axial sculpture consists of strong, oblique, rounded folds separated by interspaces approximately equal in width to the folds. The folds reach the canal, gradually weakening on the shell base. On the subsutural slope, they are much weaker, narrower, almost obsolete near the upper suture, and curved in correspondence to the anal sinus scars. There are 15 folds on the body whorl and 13 on the penultimate. Spiral sculpture is represented by broad cords below the shoulder (2 on the spire whorls and 18 on the body whorl plus canal). The cords are separated by 2-3 times wider intervals. They are often subobsolete in interstices between axia folds but very strong when overrided the latter. On the body whorl, the cords gradually diminish in width and prominence towards the canal end. There are 1-4 (usually 2) thin threads in the interspaces between cords, except between those on the canal, and 3-4 low rounded threads on the subsutural slope. Strong rounded tubercles are formed at the intersection between axial folds and spiral cords resulting in a beaded appearance of the spiral sculpture. The aperture is rather narrow, gradually narrowing towards the canal. The inner lip bears about 13 weak transverse plicae in its lower part, the plicae become closer to each other towards the canal end. There is a moderately developed parietal callus pad which is weakly tuberculate in its lower part. The outer lip has a sharpened edge, with a strong varix behind. Inside the aperture, there are 5 transverse plicae most prominent in the region corresponding to the varix, and a strong tubercle just below the anal sinus. The sinus is semi-tubular, U-shaped, broad and rounded, directed outside in relation to subsutural slope. The canal is long, slightly twisted, and obliquely truncated at the end. H = 22.6, Hb = 13.4, Ha = 11.3, D = 7.9 mm.
Paratypes vary in minor details of sculpture, e.g. in the prominence of axials on the subsutural slope, and in more or less strong nodules at the intersections between spiral and axia elements. The largest paratype is 22.6 mm high (protoconch missing).

The new species is quite similar to Crassispira sultana (Thiele, 1925 from East Africa, differing in the more slender shell (H/D ratio is 2.70-2.91 vs. 2.55 in the holotype of C. sultana) and in the presence of weakened but distinct axial folds on the subsutura slope. A peculiar feature of the new species is the presence of a second keel encircling the suture on last protoconch whorls.

Gulf of Aden