Shell small, of light build, 7-8 mm. (5/16 inch) in height, claviform, with tall spire, almost twice height of aperture plus canal, and a short anterior canal which is widely open, with an oblique, broad, but moderately deep notch. Whorls 9, including an erect conical protoconch, the tip smooth and papillate, followed by two whorls, which are strongly carinated towards the lower suture. This is followed by another strongly carinate whorl which bears concavely arcuate brephic axials. Remaining spire whorls with a rather strong rounded subnodose subsutural fold, followed by a moderate shoulder concavity, which bears regular concavely arcuate axial growth lines, but no spirals.
There is a medially situated blunt peripheral keel which bears rather weak cog-like axial nodes, 18 or 19 per whorl. Below this there is a thread, mid-way between the periphery and the lower suture, and a second thread is emergent suturally on the penultimate and body-whorls. Body-whorl with six narrow spiral threads and five rather stronger and more closely spaced spirals over the anterior end. Weak lamellate threads follow down from the arcuate axials of the shoulder slope, through the peripheral nodes and reticulate with the spiral threads below; becoming very weakly gemmulate at the points of intersection. Outer lip thin with a deep U-shaped sinus, the rounded apex of which occupies most of the shoulder slope. Inner-lip lightly glazed, without a parietal callus-pad or tubercle. Colour pure white.

Shell with an acute apex and relatively narrow aperture, b/l 0,34-0,37, a/l 0,28-0,33, base oblique, distinctly notched; shoulder at about midwhorl, subsutural cord distinct, weakly nodular, shoulder sulcus shallow but distinct, no parietal nodule, but labrum somewhat thickened in posterior angle of aperture; anal sinus relatively narrow, somewhat parallelsided; shoulder with axially oblong nodules (15-19 on penultimate whorl), situated on thin axial ribs, which are suture-to-suture and reach rostrum; ribs form small gemmules where they intersect moderately strong, well-spaced spiral lirae, 2-3 lirae below shoulder on penultimate whorl, about 3 thin threads in shoulder sulcus; white or pale brown. Protoconch conical, of about 3 whorls, last two with peripheral keel, most of final whorl also with arcuate plicules above keel, breadth 0,73-0,80 mm. Attains about 10 mm.

Two immature specimens recovered from the Gulf of Thailand are in hand, the largest 5 mm high. They match the characters of Paradrillia melvilli in having 1) claviform shell, 2) protoconch conical of 4 whorls, the first convex and bluntly tipped; subsequent whorls strongly carinate, the last with distant, markedly backwardly curved axials adapical to the keel, 3) concave shoulder slope devoid of spirals and 4) peripheral angulation with coglike nodes. The shell figured by KILBURN (1988) as Paradrillia melvilli has a 3-whorled protoconch and teleoconch characters that fit with the description of Paradrillia inconstans (Smith, 1875) published by POWELL (1969). This latter species differs primarily in that has a larger protoconch.
DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT. Paradrillia melvilli is a sublittoral and upper bathyal element so far recorded in the Indian Ocean from the Persian Gulf to Northwest India. FOSSIL RECORDS. Holocene of Thailand.

P. melvilli differs from P. inconstans forma prunulum in being of lighter build, with finer, more openly clathrate sculpture and a distinctive protoconch, which has the second and third whorls sharply carínate.

Persian Gulf and Pakistan to Transkei.