Holotype: length 6.2 mm, width 2.8 mm. Paratype: length 6.5 mm, width 3.0 mm.

Northeastern Brazil

The shell is small (maximum length 6.5 mm) and lanceolate. The spire is high and acute, consisting of one and one-half convex nuclear whorls and live dorsoventrally flattened postnuclear whorls. The suture is impressed but is largely obscured by varical buttresses. The body whorl is comparatively long for the genus, The aperture is small and ovate, with no apparent anal sulcus. The outer apertural lip is barely erect. The columellar lip is smooth and entirely adherent. The siphonal canal is short, narrowly open, and weakly dorsally recurved. The body whorl bears two poorly developed major lateral varices. A single minor varix ventral to the left major varix may be present as a low axial costa. In the holotype, however, only the two major varices are discernible. Early whorls preceding the penultimate bear the typical six varices of aspelloids. Spiral sculpture consists of four or live barely perceptible threads on the body.
The shell is waxy ycllow-white, with a covering of flat-white, finely axially striate, and incompletely spirally lined intritacalx and a translucent brown periostracum. The interior of the aperture is suffused with pale apricot.
The radular dentition and the operculum of this species are unknown; both specimens were empty when collected.
Radwin & D'Attilio, 1976. Original description.

A. cryptica appears to represent a mature biological entity that seems to most closely resemble A. pyramidalis of the tropical castern Pacific. It differs from that species in its minute size at maturity and in its intritacalx, which has, in addition to axial striations, interrupted spiral lires of punctations.