Shell solid, slender, elongate in shape, up to 12.2 mm in length, but most shells measure between 10 and 11 mm. The protoconch is tilted, with about 3 whorls when one considers the appearance of the first axial plicae as the start of the teleoconch. The protoconch whorls are orange-brown, the start of the teleoconch is much paler. The suture is shallow, not deeply incised, but still clearly visible. The shell is smooth, but covered with 7 to 8 wavy axial plicae. On each whorl, they are placed in the prolongation of the preceding wave on the preceding whorl, and in this way they look like very long solid axial ribs - which they are not. The overall coloration of the shells is a warm orange-brown, darker below the suture, paler on top of the axial waves, and white on the lower part of the columellar area. The siphonal canal is wide and so is the parietal canal. The lip is flaring, thin. The outer side of the lip becomes pale, sometimes even whitish, and occasionally there the shell has a pattern of three darker bands. These darker bands are discernible even on the lower part of the body whorl.

This central Indo-Pacific species resembles strongly the type of the genus Cerodrillia, which is an Atlantic species from the Florida Keys, Key West, the Hawk Channel: the name is Cerodrillia clappi Bartsch & Rehder, 1939. The holotype can be seen online at the homepage of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. The size of this holotype is slightly over 10 mm, about the same as in the new species. We best compare the new Cerodrillia with the type of the genus, as at first view, shells look almost identical. The type of C. clappi has however a hardly visible line in the center of the last whorl. The outer lip of the aperture is slightly more flaring in C. jerrywallsi n. sp. The last whorl is also more angular in the new species, with the upper part of the last whorl more concave when viewed from the ventral side and compared to the type of C. clappi. The latter holotype is dirty cream in coloration and dull, while C. jerrywallsi n. sp. is usually glossy and warm brown in coloration. Often, two darker flecks can be seen on the outer lip of C. jerrywallsi n. sp., while the outer lip in C. clappi is uniformly colored.

TYPE LOCALITY
Mactan Island. Punta Engano. 180-250 m.
DISTRIBUTION
At present only known from the east coast of Mactan Island, where shells were collected mainly between 100 and 250 m. They live there on muddy gravel bottoms.