45mm. Thick, solid, squat, spire less than half total height; 2 axially aligned varices per whorl. Aperture small, outer lip irregularly toothed, columella with irregular, deep-seated folds; posterior canal moderately long, partly open (canals visible on spire whorls). Coarse, nodulous, spiral cords and lesser ribs. Cream to yellowish brown with brown spotting on cords; aperture violet inside, its edges white. Habitat: under rocks. Distribution: Gulf of Oman, Yemen coast.

Shell of small to moderate size for the genus, thick and solid, with relatively tall, conic spire with almost straight outlines produced by the aligned varices up its edges, and with a short, open anterior canal, twisted strongly to the right, producing a prominent, strongly curved, nodulous fasciole. Varices narrow and relatively low, with slightly concave abapertural faces, bearing prominent nodules where crossed by the primary spiral cords. Spiral sculpture of 2 prominent, very weakly bifid, primary cords on spire whorls and 3 on last whorl, relatively widely spaced but not as much so as in the most similar congener, B. grayana Dunker, with 1 low secondary cord and, in some specimens, weak tertiary threads in each interspace, and many low, narrow, poorly defined, faintly nodulous spiral threads on sutural ramp, neck and anterior canal. Collabral sculpture of low, poorly denned, widely spaced folds, 2 or 3 on spire whorls but only 1 or 2 on last 1 or 2 intervariceal spaces, each increasing in prominence across sutural ramp to produce a conic nodule on spire whorls, but widened and in some cases irregularly amalgamated on last 1 or 2 intervariceal spaces to produce a large, irregular swelling that occupies upper 2 peripheral cords and their interspace and, on most specimens, has a steep abapertural face but a very gently descending adapertural face. Aperture with widely reflected lips, uniform pale mauve inside (fading to white in most beach specimens) shading to cream around outer edges, nodules and plicae white; outer lip with scal-loped outer margin, and 8 low, narrow folds inside; the folds are grouped into 4 pairs. Inner lip relatively narrow over parietal area but spreading more widely at maximum of columellar curvature on most specimens, to fill curve of fasciole with a thick callus; bearing many relatively simple, straight, narrow plicae, low and closely spaced over upper half of lip but more prominent and more widely spaced over lower half. Posterior siphonal tubes straight, deep, open, moderately long but, in most specimens, protruding little beyond the spire outline. External surface lightly polished, cream to pale brownish yellow, with many small, bright, red-brown maculations on spiral cords, upper part of sutural ramp, and anterior canal, and a few large, irregular, red-brown streaks with blended edges on either side of large peripheral nodules, particularly counter-shading large nodules on last whorl. Protoconch abraded on all material. Operculum oval, medium brown, with an anterior terminal nucleus. Dimensions. 46.4 X 31.9 mm (holotype); 50.9 X 36.9 mm (largest paratype, WM13260); 49.7 X 36.5 mm (paratype, WM 13260); 34.0 x 24.2 mm (paratype, WM 13972).

Bursa davidboschi is much smaller and more weakly sculptured than B. bufonia (Gmelin) with which it was confused by Bosch et al. (1983). The only Indo-West Pacific species it could be confused with is B. tuberosissima (Reeve) (1844b, pl. 7, fig. 39), which is common in the Philippine Islands but less so elsewhere in the Indo-West Pacific. B. tuberosissima differs from B. davidboschi in its much longer posterior canal tubes, its paler exterior colour (although conspicuously marked with narrow dark brown lines on many specimens, the form leo Shikama 1964, p. 115, pl. 62, fig. 10), its yellow or white (rather than mauvish pink) aperture, and its more irregularly and coarsely nodulous surface. The real relationship of B. davidboschi appears to be with B. grayana Dunker. They share many characters that give them a closely similar appearance, such as having a spire and last whorl of the same height and shape, with a strongly protruding, lightly concave sutural ramp; having a relatively short, open, posterior siphonal tube; and having the secondary spiral cord below the third primary cord on the last whorl raised over the varices into a nodule as large as those on primary cords, forming an abrupt termination to the varix, separated from the short, strongly twisted and protruding anterior canal by a deep, narrow groove. However, the differences are consistent, and the fossil B. bufoniopsis conforms to the modern Western Atlantic type. B. grayana has a slightly narrower sutural ramp (the shoulder cord is nearer the upper suture), a slightly shorter and straighter anterior canal, narrower, more strongly bifid, and markedly more widely spaced primary spiral cords, considerably more prominent secondary spiral cords and, in many spiral interspaces, prominent, narrow, tertiary and quaternary threads (absent from all but a few specimens of B. davidboschi), more numerous, smaller, but more prominent, narrower, and more clearly defined peripheral nodules (three or four in the last intervariceal space), forming separate rows of nodules on the two main peripheral spiral cords, a generally more finely, obviously, and densely nodulous external surface lacking the light polish and large colour splashes of B. davidboschi, narrower varices, and denser, narrower, more nodulous, more irregular, and more anastomosing inner-lip plicae than those of B. davidboschi. The overall effect is that B. davidboschi is smoother, brighter, and (because of its lower nodules and wider varices) more dorso-ventrally compressed than B. grayana.