Shell conoidal, brownish to chestnut, unicolored, or with two, sometimes three, revolving, light bands, the upper on the well-marked shoulder; the base of the shell is sometimes white; there is a single revolving subvertical lamina on the columella, and generally another on the parietal wall; the lirae inside the outer lip are white and irregular. Length, 14 mm; diameter, 9 mm.

Melampus flavus and the Melampus coffeus vary much in form, color, and other characters, and there are specimens which can only be named with difficulty. Generally the M. flavus has a single lamina on the parietal wall, while that of coffeus is double, but this character is not absolutely constant. The former has generally irregular lirae inside the outer lip. Occasionally M. coffeus has a white base. The nearly vertical columellar fold is tolerably constant and characteristic.