The shell is moderately large (maximum length 90 mm) and club-sharked. Its spire is moderarely low, with two nuclear whorls and five shouldered postnuclear whorls. The suture is deeply impressed, and this feature is emphasized by a depressed area on the shoulder immediately abutting the suture. The body whorl is moderately large, as high as broad. The aperture is broadly ovate, with an anal sulcus posteriorly and a strong constriction anteriorly, at the top of the siphonal canal. The outer apertural lip is thickened, with a crenulate leading edge, the crenulations coinciding with short lirae that extend for some distance into the aperture. The columellar lip adheres to the body whorl above, forming a parietal callus that reaches the shoulder; below, the columellar lip is detached from the body whorl and developed into a prominent flaring inductura with a strongly concave inner surface. The siphonal canal is long, tubelike, narrowly open, and slightly recurved; to the side of the canal is a ridge composed of the vestiges of former canals.
The body whorl bears six or seven varices, these proceeding obliquely across the shoulder to coincide with those on the former whorl. Spiral sculpture consists of many fine spiral threads and two or exceptionally three prominent cords. Where these cords cross the varices, short, broad-based, blunt or sharp spines are developed: the uppermost spiral row of spines, at the shoulder, is made up of moderately long, narrowly open spines; a second row, around the middle of the body whorl, is made up of shorter, completely closed spines; a third row of finer, narrowly open spines obliquely encircles the siphonal canal from just below the inductura to a point about one-third of the way down the canal.
Shell color is pale fleshy orange, with three faint brown spiral bands on the body whorl.

Shell up to 120 mm in length with 1.75-2.25 protoconch whorls and 7 teleoconch whorls. Protoconch globose, smooth, glossy. Whorls rounded.
Axial sculpture of last teleoconch whorl with 6, occasionally 5 or 7. low, flat varices, each with 2, occasionally 1 or 3, rarely 4, short or moderately long spines, sometimes reduced to low knobs. Spiral sculpture of numerous, squamous cords and threads of various strength.
Aperture large, roundly-ovate. Outer lip strongly crenulate. smooth within. Columellar lip smooth, flaring, partially adherent adapically. Siphonal canal long, straight, open, with a single row of short, abapically bent spines adaperturally, occasionally smooth. Pale tan or tan. Aperture white, tan, yellow, pale peach or apricot.
Rachidian radular tooth with long, broad, central cusp, one small lateral denticle, and one long lateral cusp on each side.
Bolinus brandaris is a common commercial species, fished for seafood. It is probably not the most variable species of the Muricidae, but it is certainly one which received a very large number of names to designate all the forms, even minor variations (see synonymy). It was used by Romans to produce the Tyrian purple. A sinistral specimen from Chioggia (Italy) was illustrated by Cecalupo (1984) while many other monstrosities are known (Settepassi, 1972).

It is distinguishable from B. cornutus (Linnaeus, 1758) in usually having only a single row of spines on the siphonal canal, instead of two rows in B. cornutus, and in being generally of smaller size, with higher spire and shorter, straighter spines.

Central and western Mediterranean.

Probably throughout the Mediterranean Sea, but I have not seen material from Algeria and Libya. European side of the Ibero-Moroccan Gulf, and Portugal as far north as Cascais, usually on sandy bottom, at 0-150 m. On the North African shore, there is a sharp western limit at Tangier, where it is rare.