General description (after 291 shells from 3 localities). — The shell is conical with a somewhat turreted profile and a blunt top. The protoconch is of type B. There are three to four convex teleoconch whorls with a deeply excavated suture, its direction is almost horizontal on the initial whorls, slightly oblique on the lower ones. The ribs are about as broad as their interstices, vertical and straight or somewhat curved. They end at the last spiral ridge, at the upper edge of the aperture or, rapidly decreasing and disappearing after that spiral. The spirals are more pronounced than in many other Chrysallida, but generally not equal to the ribs. The initial whorls have two spiral ridges, the upper one on the middle of the whorl, the other one halfway the first and the abapical suture. Sometimes there is a finer third spiral, hidden within the suture and thus difficult to observe. The last whorl has three or four spiral ridges: the highest one halfway the adapical suture and the aperture, the third at the same level as the upper edge of the aperture, the second in between. If there is a fourth, finer spiral, it is located below the third one. The aperture is oval-spherical. The tooth is very insignificant or even absent. There is a narrow umbilical chink.
Length 1.4-2.6 mm, LW 52-64%, A 27-36%, L/B 2.1-2.5, B/b 1.5-1.9 (based on 9 shells).

Because of its northern distribution, C. eximia cannot be confused with Mediterranean and Lusitanian species (the record of Rolan Mosquera, 1983, is questionable, because the shape of the illustrated shell is completely different; it is probably C. clathrata) like C. jeffreysiana (also convex whorls, but without spirals) and C. emaciata (equally convex whorls, but on each whorl one spiral less, thinner and differently located, cf. C. emaciata). C. clathrata has the same spiral-pattern, also somewhat coarser than normal; however, the shell is more slender, the whorls are not (so) convex, the initial whorls are higher, the ribs broader and the aperture is not spherical.

Type locality: Off Lerwick, Shetland.
Distribution: In Norway found along the whole coast including east Finnmark (G.O. Sars 1878, Norman 1902), although only occasionally north of Lofoten. Although reported from both Oslofjorden and Skagerrak by G.O. Sars (1878), I found no specimens in my material from Skagerrak. North of Hordaland, surprisingly few specimens found compared to the hundreds (at least 250) of empty shells. Outside Norway only reported from southeastern Greenland, Iceland, the Faroes, Swedish west coast, east of Shetland, western Scotland and a single shell from west of Ireland, 764 m (Jeffreys 1867, Fretter et al. 1986, Waren 1991, Schander 1995).