Shell small, ovate-elongate. Whorls 4 ½, including a papillate smooth protoconch of 1 ½ whorls, the apex slightly tilted. Spire same height as aperture. Whorls gently rounded, sutures lightly impressed. Surface smooth and glossy, the only sculpture being seven spiral grooves upon the neck. Outer lip smooth, somewhat thickened but not dilated; there is a subsutural broad shallow sinus. Colour light golden and darker brown on a white ground. Pattern variable: the holotype has the spire whorls light golden brown, lighter on the apex and at a narrow subsutural band; body whorl mottled light brown; base with a broad subperipheral band of darker brown and faint mottling over the grooved neck; inside of aperture mottled greyish corresponding to the external pattern.

Height, 3·1 mm.; diameter, 1·52 mm. (holotype).
Holotype in Auckland Museum.
Locality: Tom Bowling Bay, Northern N.Z. (in shell-sand).

The species is nearest to stephanophora (Suter, 1908), but is of smaller size and lacks the expanded lip of that species.