The shell is of moderate size (maximum length 25 mm) and fusiform. The spire is moderately high, consisting of two and one-half nuclear whorls and four postnuclear whorls. The suture is impressed. The body whorl is moderately small, roughly fusoid, and triangular in cross section. The aperture is ovate, with a flattened posterior margin; the anal sulcus is shallow, very broad, and oriented to the left. The outer apertural lip is erect and marginally crenulate; its inner surface is smooth or weakly crenulate. The columellar lip is adherent above, detached and erect below. The siphonal canal is long, slender, dorsally recurved, and narrowly open to the right.
The body whorl bears six pyramidal, strongly erect varices, with comparatively broad interspaces. Intervarical axial sculpture is lacking. Spiral sculpture consists of five major cords on the body and two more on the canal, and two minor cords in the space between the body and the canal. The major cords are large, prominent, and tripartite, consisting of a single major ridge flanked on each side by a minor one. The entire shell surface is scabrously laminate, the edges of the laminae erect. The leading edge of each varix is richly fimbriate. Where the spiral cords intersect the varices, moderately long, weakly foliaceous spines are developed. The spine at the shoulder margin, much the longest, is strongly upturned and recurved; the spines are otherwise of equal length.
Shell color is pinkish-brown, with a thin, white, chalky surface layer.

Punta Gorda, Baja California, to the Gulf of Panama in moderately deep water (100-200 m).