Shell oblong-conic, solid, covered with a thin reddish cuticle, which is darker below; spire conic-turbinate, pale above, more or less conspicuously flamed with reddish, the apex submamillate. Whorls 8 to 9, convex, granulose-decussate, the last whorl plicatulate-striate, obsoletely decussate in places, shorter than the spire. Columella bluish-white, arcuate anteriorly, narrowly tapering-truncate. Aperture acuminate-oval, blue within, pearly; peristome unexpanded, thin, brown-bordered, the margins joined by a moderate bluish parietal callous. Length 126, diam. 61 mm.

Morelet defines two varieties: (1) with the shell thick and ponderous, 9,5 whorls, and (2) shorter, more ventricose, blackish-chestnut, thin, with stronger sculpture, found at the cataracts of the Lucala river. It has a whorl less than the type form.

West Africa: Humid forests of Golongo-Alto, near Sange, and district of the Due de Braganza, Angola (Dr. Welwitsch).