Shell conic , very stretched in form, whorls flat, suture not much broad, typical protoconch at "button-like" rather changeable. Usually the typical form has a sculpture made by three spiral cords (below suture weaker) making some small tubercles when they cross the fine little axial ribs. In the living specimens it is present a fine transparent periostracum. Average measures are about 8 mm in height.

Shell. A tall and slender cone, solid, opaque and glossy. It seems flat-sided, but the apical part (apical angle 17-20°) tapers more than the basal (apical angle 9-13°). There are up to 18 flat whorls meeting at sutures so shallow as to be inconspicuous amongst the ornament. This consists of spiral ridges and grooves and costae, all small but distinct, and tuberculated where they cross. The spiral ridges are usually rather narrower than the intervening spaces but are sometimes equal to them in breadth. There are 4 or 5 on the last whorl, 3 or 4 on the others. The most abapical on the last whorl is smooth or, at most, nodose, especially near the outer lip. This may also be true of the whorls of the spire where this ridge forms the upper edge of the suture, though it is, in some shells, covered by the lower whorl. The peripheral ridge on each whorl is broader and higher than the others and the furrow on its adapical side often broader than other furrows. The subsutural ridge may be very low. The costae usually lower than the spiral ridges, are crescentic, prosocline at the upper suture, opisthocline at the lower. There are 24 on each whorl. The reticulation of the shell surface is marked with microspirals and growth lines; the latter become prominent as opisthocline curves on the otherwise smooth base of the shell.
The protoconch is slightly broader than the first whorl of the adult shell and has a bulbous apex. The embryonic shell consists of 1 smooth whorl marked with many delicate spiral lines, the larval shell of 1.25 whorls, bearing numerous crescentic costae. The embryonic whorl is set oblique to the axis of the larval and adult shell and has a diameter of c. 500 µm. The larval shell is c. 600 µm broad 900 high.
Aperture. Small and quandrangular with a very oblique siphonal canal. The outer lip arises from the base of the last whorl below the most abapical spiral ridge, normal to the surface; it is thin, thickened by the ends of the spiral ridges and has a rather curved course, because of a peripheral sinus. At the base of this section it turns rather sharply through an obtuse angle towards the columella at the level of which it forms the abapical edge of a broadly open siphonal canal which is directed backwards and to the left. The other edge of the canal is formed by the columellar lip. The columella is short and straight and bent scrollwise. The lip is turned out and applied to the base of the shell so that there is no umbilical groove. There is a thin film over the last whorl. Colour. Yellowish white or white.Size. Up to 12x4 mm. Last whorl = 30-45% of total shell height; aperture = 18-29% of shell height. Animal. We have not been able to examine specimens of this species. It is described by Jeffreys as having a rounded head bearing slender and divergent tentacles appearing curved and ringed, with blunt tips. The eyes are small on swellings at the tentacle base. The foot is long and narrow, double-edged and angulated anteriorly, pointed behind. Colour. White.

Geographical distribution. Recorded from European coasts between the Mediterranean and N. Norway and from Iceland. It is, however, a rare animal and the only British records are from off Scilly and Shetland. It is rare in the Skagerrak and does not occur in the Kattegat. There are no 20th century British findings. Habitat. On soft bottoms from 40-400 m. Food. Unknown.