Shell with a moderately high spire and a blunt apex, moderately solid, up to 1.8 x 1.1 mm. Protoconch of 1.25 convex whorls; surface of larval whorls covered by minute granules, distributed so as to form broad spiral bands. Teleoconch of 2.5-3.25 whorls, with a sculpture of thin but elevated axial ribs, minute spiral threads and very faint spiral cords restricted to the abapical area. Ribs ca 28-36, ca 45 on the penultimate whorl, with adapical termination hardly prominent along the suture, reaching quite far on the abapical part of the body whorl and there gradually fading out; becoming more crowded behind the outer lip. Spiral cords very low and faint, as broad as the interspaces, developed mainly on the periumbilical area of the body whorl, hardly visible on adapical part of body whorl and on spire whorls. Spiral threads minute but very distinct, attenuated on the crest of the axial ribs, separated by interspaces about two to six times as broad. Outer lip slightly prosocline, with a thin edge and thickened externally at a distance from the edge by a broad rim, overrun by the spiral microsculpture but not by the cords; smooth and not thickened inside. Inner lip thin, bordering a small umbilical chink. Shell colour entirely white, translucent in fresh shells.

This species constitutes with Alvania microstriata Hoenselaar and Goud, 1998 and A. seinensis n. sp. a group which seems restricted to the Lusitanian seamounts and Madeira, and does not resemble closely any of the European mainland species. There is a quite broad range of variation among specimens attributed to A. adinogramma by Bouchet and Waren (1993, p 638-639), some having twice as many ribs as others.

East Atlantic Seamounts