Shell 6-8 mm long, with 4.5-5.5 teleoconch whorls. Shell glossy, high-spired, with large body whorl, suture minimally impressed. Aperture edge thin, not denticulate, usually projecting anteriorly past tip of columella. Sculpture of weak thin axials on early whorls (Fig. 9E), fine spiral scratches overall. Off white with white, chestnut to dark brown markings, or purple brown, often with reticulate pattern of white dots; color, pattern variable. Colored shells often with one spiral chain of white dots below suture. Protoconch blunt, conical, smooth, white or tan, about 1.75 whorls, with no velar sinus.

Ithiaesopus arestus is typically a white or mostly white shell, so this species may prove to be something different, but there is nothing substantive to differentiate them at present.

Outer Baja California and the offshore islands (Guadalupe Island, Natividad Island, Rocas Alijos), 10-30 m. Locally common.