Shell conical, imperforate, solid, shining, of variable colour and markings. Sculpture consisting of rather broad and flat spiral cinguli, with narrow interstices, 5 to 6 on the penultimate, about 13 on the body whorl, crossed by fine oblique growth-striae ; below the suture and on the periphery of the last whorl 2 cinguli are usually fused together. Colour : Specimens from the North Island are cinereous or white, with broad red spots on the upper whorls and below the suture on the last whorl, the remainder being adorned with blood-red dots ; sometimes the whole shell is pink, with broad oblique white bands running down the 2 last whorls to the periphery. South Island examples are much duller, the first 3 or 4 whorls are mottled with dark grey and purple, whilst near the suture white spots are found at regular intervals, 6 to 7 on a whorl, forming longitudinal bands on the second and third whorls ; the last whorls are dark purple or greenish-brown, with longitudinal narrow streaks of yellow or yellowish-grey. Spire depressed conical, usually lower than the height of aperture, sides slightly convex. Protoconch small, convex, mostly eroded. Whorls 5 to 6, slightly convex, mostly a little shouldered, the last angled at the periphery ; base convex. Suture impressed. Aperture oblique, subrhomboidal, inside pearly and lirate. Outer lip thick, with a white callus inside, which reaches often far into the aperture. Columella oblique, arcuate, slightly straightened in the middle. The inner lip spreading over the umbilicus, filling it completely, or leaving a small fissure.
Diameter, 7 mm. ; height, 8 mm.
Hab.—Banks Peninsula to Dunedin (Captain Hutton); Hauraki Gulf; Manukau Heads; East Cape; Lyall Bay ; Lyttelton and Akaroa Harbours ; Bay of Islands.
Fossil in the Pliocene.