(Synonym: Neritina insculpta Reeve, 1855.) Length, 14 mm; diameter, 11 mm. Shell: globose, solid; with incised spiral grooves; black. Spire: three whorls; spire fairly prominent but sometimes eroded. Sculpture: unequally spaced, fine, spiral grooves. Aperture: lunate; outer lip thin with 15 to 20 teeth; inner lip with two to six irregular teeth; septum thick, slightly concave, smooth. Operculum: calcareous, red-brown, the surface finely granular. Color: black, occasionally vaguely marked with white.
N. picea is the dominant nerite along Hawaiian shorelines, abundant on all rocky substrates from the splash zone to high-water mark just below the littorines. The vertical movements of these nerites with the tide are especially noticeable on limestone shorelines. This species is recorded in Pleistocene deposits on Oahu (Ostergaard, 1928). N. picea and Theodoxus neglectus were called pipipi by the Hawaiians who used the animals for food and the shells for leis.
N. picea was described from the Hawaiian Islands but has also been recorded from various localities in the Pacific (for example, Indonesia by Adam and Leloup, 1938). It seems to be very rare elsewhere in the Pacific, except at Johnston Island, where it is apparently as abundant as it is in Hawaii.