Original description: "Sc. testa ovata, modice depressa, lineis tenuissimis longitudinalibus et transversis decussata; spira convexiuscula; umbilico mediocri; apertura transversim ovata." PHILIPPI, 1853: 38, No. 11.
Description: Shell minute, ovate, thin, subdiaphanous. Spire small, depressed; spiral whorls scalariform; body whorl broad, convex, constitutes major part of shell; sutures incised. Protoconch of 1,5 convex whorls, sculptured with sharp, raised radial threads, separated by broad interspaces. First 1,25 postnuclear whorls convex, sculptured with numerous microscopic growth striae, which regularly thicken to prominent axial threads; threads on later part of whorl intersected by spiral costae, intersections knobbed. On shoulder of remaining 1,5 whorls rather narrow and concavely excavated selenizone, set off from the whorl by raised, narrow edges; terminates at the outer lip in a long, narrow slit. On the postnuclear whorls above the selenizone about thirty narrow, recurved radial threads which intersect with three sharp spiral threads; intersections thicken to sharp, projecting nodules. Base rounded, sculptured below selenizone with twelve spiral threads and intersecting radial costae, which become obsolete near the umbilical area and at the inner lip. Umbilicus shallow, narrow, semilunar, smooth. Aperture ovate, oblique; outer lip sharp, cut by slit, projects over parietal wall; paries fused to body whorl; columella curved, reflected over umbilicus. Color white. Operculum and soft parts not known. Habitat: Under boulders on shore-fringing and lagoon-fringing reefs in shallow water, population density ca. 0.01 individuals per sq. m. (MASTALLEB, 1979: 242, Tab. 13).