Shell up to 10.2 mm high, glossy, stout. Spire narrowly and rather evenly conical, 1.90-2.28 x as high as aperture, mean spire angle 57-63°, anomphalous.
Colour of tip of apical fold yellowish brown, rest of protoconch colourless, translucent. First 2 teleoconch whorls, translucent white, subsequent whorls white with broad, irregular, pale yellowish brown maculations, summits of P2-P4 alternately streaked white and yellowish brown. Base white or buff white, 1 or 2 outer and/or inner basal spirals often spotted yellowish brown.
Protoconch 380-400 µm wide, sculptured with network of line, crisp threads that enclose roughly hexagonal spaces, apical fold tip rounded, terminal varix strong. Teleoconch of up to 7.75 whorls, 1st eighth whorl with Fine crisp spiral threads, delineated by strong, rounded varix and growth scar. Whorls convex, P3 peripheral, base weakly convex, sharply contracted below P4, last adult whorl becoming evenly convex. Spiral cords on spire and base prominent; axial costae strong on 1st 4 or 5 whorls, obsolete or persisting weakly thereafter. P2-P4 commencing immediately after post larval scar, strong, after 3rd whorl becoming narrowly and sharply angulate in section and flange-like, P2 adapically upturned, P4 partly covered by succeeding whorls, P1 absent or commencing on mid 3rd - early 4th whorl, remaining weak. S2 absent or commencing late 5th - late 6th whorl, remaining weak. Fine tertiary spirals frequently present on last adult whorl, several in each interspace. Nodules (P2, P3) roundly conical, rather sharp, becoming more or less irregular in size, either persisting throughout or almost obsolete after 4th or 5th whorl. Base with 11-19 weak, inner 2 or 3 weakly nodular, others more or less smooth. Raised collabral growth lines throughout, stronger on base. Aperture subquadrate. Outer lip thin at rim, strongly thickened within, especially on abapical side. Inner lip thick. Parietal inductura extremely thin.

Calliostoma (Benthastelena) cristatum is similar to C. (B.) katherina and C. (B.) diadematum sp. nov. in radular and jaw morphology and in gross shell facies, so the three species are evidently related. C. (B.) cristatum differs from C. (B.) diadematum in lacking an umbilicus, from C. (B.) katherina in that P2 is set higher on late teleoconch whorls, and from both species in having weaker secondary sculpture and much finer nodules on late teleoconch whorls. The nodules on the spire whorls tend to weaken from the fourth or fifth whorl in southern specimens but remain relatively stronger in northern specimens, especially on P2. I am unable to detect any other significant differences between northern and southern specimens, which seem to be regional variants of a single species.

Off Recifs d'Entrecasteaux, northern New Caledonia, and off southern New Caledonia (type loc.), 200-400 m, living at 200-365 m.