A well sized solid slender shaped Subcancilla with a slightly raised siphonal canal. Holotype: 28 mm in length, 9 mm in width. The protoconch is broken off in all shells, but a large part remains of it in paratype 5. Unfortunately in this specimen it is covered with a black deposit and the not covered parts are eroded. We will have to wait for more specimens before we can describe the protoconch of this particular species. The body whorl has 9 whorls, is very big and covers about 3/4 of the total shell length. The aperture is half or over half the shell length. The suture is shallow and very hard to observe: it is situated in general on top or just below a major spiral rib. The sculpture is very typical: the whole shell is covered with dominating spiral ribs that are colored light to dark brown on top. There is a big space between these ribs, especially on the lower whorls, and inside this space there is a white - not colored - spiral rib that crosses multiple axial ribs. There are beads formed where these axials and the secondary spiral ribs cross. There are only 3 primary spiral ribs between the top of the aperture and the suture of the body whorl. The aperture is oblique, narrow and long, and has a crenulate. not thickened outer lip. The columellar side is white, with 4 oblique columellar folds. Siphonal canal quite narrow and raised upwards when seen from the side. Overall coloration is a dirty white with a darker tint towards the apex and yellow-orange spiral lines on top of the spiral ribs. Inside of the aperture white or dirty-white.

S. rufogyratus, S. salisburyi and S. shikamai can be distinguished at once from this species by the much smaller size and the thicker spiral lines on the shell. None of these has a body whorl with a curved siphonal canal - raised upwards in fact.
S.filaris, S. praestantissima and S. yagurai are usually smaller bin can reach the same size or even become bigger. S. filar is and S. praestantissinta have much thicker and heavier shells and the spiral lines are thicker, the siphonal canal is not curved - or raised upwards. A shell that has also thin dark spiral lines in the pattern is S. yagurai, but this species has a much higher spire, smaller aperture and the siphonal canal is straight, not curved.
In shape - especially with the curved siphonal canal - and the combination of the small spire and thin, well spaced spiral lines distinguish S.pugnaxa at once from all other Subcancilla.

TYPE LOCALITY
The Philippines. Balicasag Island.
DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT
This species apparently has a large bathymetric range as occasionally the first author dive the species in northern Bohol on mud bottoms from below 20 m. The shell from Masbate also suggests a shallow bottom. The specimens from Aliguay and Balicasag are usually fished around 100 m deep with tangle nets or dredges. The Sogod shells often come from 200 m deep and paratypes 6 & 7 from the Salisbury collection mention 180 m.