Diagnosis. Shell small, shape biconical, moderately broad with low, conical spire; base constricted with weakly stretched base. Protoconch high, consisting of 1,5 laterally flattened whorls that are typical for genus. Transition to teleoconch distinct, marked by fine line. Shell ornamented with dominant axial ribs crossed by fine spiral cords, interspaces covered with fine but sharp incremental lines. Aperture rather oval, columella weakly concave, parietal concave, anal notch broad but shallow, parietal knob absent or weak, anal knob weak, the whole forming a smooth running curve along columella and adapical part of aperture. Columella with a single columellar knobs, on transition to siphonal canal with 2 small columellar folds. Outer lip concave; inside with knobs. Siphonal canal short, straight, open, narrow.
Minioniella gen. nov. is characterized by a peculiar protoconch morphology with a high shape, consisting of angular whorls and by the semi-oval aperture with a limited number of denticles. Species of Clivipollia differ by the larger protoconch, the narrower, more triangular shaped aperture, the presence of a broad but weak anal knob, the larger number of apertural knobs both on the columella and inside the outer lip and the larger adult size. Species of Speccapollia differ in having a narrow aperture, a deep anal notch, a broad parietal callus and a sculpture that consists of broader spiral cords.
Enginella Monterosato, 1917 [type species: Murex bicolor Cantraine, 1835 = E. leucozona (Philippi, 1844)] has a protoconch with somewhat similar shaped, moderately angulated whorls but differs considerably in shape and pattern. The aperture differs in the well defined anal notch with sharp parietal and anal denticles. The Indo-West Pacific species placed in this genus by Cernohorsky (1975: 201) belong to Engina or Enginella, thus far this genus is not recorded from the Indo-West Pacific. Species belonging to Morula Schumacher, 1817 (Muricidae) could be confused with Minionella but they constantly differ in having a narrower and more strongly ovate aperture with strong denticles within the outer apertural lip and in having most of the time a conical, multispiral protoconch attesting of a planktotrophic larval development.