Shell small, 4.5 mm, rather slender, turri¬culate, with stepped whorls. Protoconch small, 1,5 whorl, finely spirally striate, globose, indicating direct larval development. Teleoconch whorls seven, convex in outline, shouldered, with about 18 strong, well-demarcated axial ribs on the last whorl, separated by slightly wider and rather deep interspaces, and covered by a crisp sculpture of elevated, also well-demarcated spiral riblets, giving the whorls a spiky profile. Base with a moderately deep basal furrow, bordered by two thick spiral ribs roughened by growth-lines. Aperture oval, with a wide, shallow anterior Siphonal notch. Outer lip strongly incrassate by fusion of the last axial ribs, the overlaying spiral ribs, however, less acute than on the preceding axial ribs. Colour white, glossy.

The crisp teleoconch sculpture is unique. This is not Rissoina duclosi Montrouzier in Souverbie & Montrouzier, 1866 (figs 25-28), which does have similar pronounced, straight axial ribs, but has the spiral sculpture much less developed, not producing the prickly micro-sculpture at the intersections.

Type locality: PHILIPPINES: Pamilacan Island, 9°29.4f N; 123°56.1' E; 25 m, sediment from deep part of cave. [PMBP Sta. B28, 25.VI.2004].
Distribution: Bohol Sea, south-central Philippines to Vanuatu.

Rissoina aspera seems to be an uncommon but rather widely distributed species (I have seen only 21 specimens). Perhaps it has escaped notice because of a cryptic habitat. Such habitats were hardly ever explored before the invention of vacuum pump collecting (for a description of this method see Snyder, 2012), which was widely used for the first time during the French expeditions to the Central-West Pacific.