Shell up to 31 mm (about 1,25 inches) in length, elongate-ovate to ovate, heavy and solid, body whorl very long, spire short, sutures distinct and narrowly incised. Whorls 5-7, apart from the protoconch which is always eroded in mature specimens, spire whorls short and convex, sculptured with spiral rows of small and shallow punctures which number from 4-13 on the penultimate and from 17-30 on the body whorl; towards the base the spiral pittings become prominent, oblique cords. Aperture longer than the spire, narrow and smooth within, outer lip prominently thickened and smooth, interior callus small or large and sometimes bluntly triangular; columella calloused anteriorly and with 4-5 oblique folds, parietal wall only glazed and frequently with a callosity near the juncture of the outer lip. Siphonal canal short and straight, siphonal notch distinct. White or cream in colour, ornamented with irregular, wavy, brown or dark olive-green axial streaks and blotches, some specimens are brown and spotted and streaked with white, cream or light yellow; aperture and columella white or light violet, parietal wall brown, parietal callus off-white. Periostracum thin, brown or yellowish brown and moderately translucent.

This is one of the commonest and most widely distributed mitrid, which is so variable in form, colour-ornamentation and development of the outer lip callus, that several plates would be required in order to record all known variants.

Red Sea and Gulf of Oman to Polynesia and the Hawaiian Islands.
On reefs, under rocks and coral, in crevices of coral and among algae, in the intertidal zone. Kohn (1970), in a study of Hawaiian populations of the species, found that M. litterata preys exclusively on siphunculids which burrow in reef limestone.