Radular tooth: Posterior fold and/or terminating cusp are partially external; basal spur present; blade is long covering anterior section of tooth; barb is short; the anterior section of the tooth is shorter than the posterior section of the tooth.
Shell characters: Posterior half of the body is usually smooth or with rows of pustules but not with ridges or sulci; the anal notch is shallow; the operculum is moderate to large; the periostracum is smooth; the protoconch is multispiral.

This subgenus, Miliariconus and Virroconus may share a common ancestor. However, Duda & Palumbi (2000) found that selection on venom alleles differed between M. abbreviatus and M. ebraeus. All have internal constrictions inside the aperture, all are nodulose and all have darker coloration on the anterior end of the shell. Harmoniconus differs from the other related genera in not having an anterior notch as does Miliariconus and in having interrupted spiral lines as an important pattern element (not well developed at all in Virroconus). Vallejo (2005) suggested that the species we include in Miliariconus and Harmoniconus were only distantly related. A recent study by Duda et al. (2008) has revealed the phylogenetic relationships among the species in this subgenus.

The species included in the genus occur in the Indo-Pacific region. One species (Harmoniconus nux) occurs in the East Pacific region.