Description: Shell medium-sized, SL 20-30 mm, turriform, with up to nine teleoconch whorls with usually prominent shoulder and moderately long (0.18 0.27 of SL), straight or slightly recurved, siphonal canal. Suture narrowly channelled due to elevated sub¬sutural portion of whorls. No intact protoconchs available; judging from remaining part, protoconch exceeding four whorls, later ones with axial riblets. Subsutural cord varying in prominence, its width ranging from half that of subsutural ramp to nearly equal, with two or three distinct ridges on last and penultimate whorls, and a single one on upper teleoconch whorls. Subsutural ramp concave in species with narrower subsutural cord, or reduced to a groove in species with broad subsutural cord; smooth or with one to two additional smaller cordlets. Peripheral cord at least as strong as subsutural one, forming shoulder angle; gemmate; gemmae nearly orthocline, shallowly or distinctly bifid, 21 37 on last whorl, distinct on entire whorl; intervals with two feeble spiral threads. Last whorl with three to four distinct unequally spaced main cords at periphery of base, with or without smaller cordlets between major cords. Siphonal canal with distinct, uniform, more closely spaced cords. Aperture (without canal) 0.22 0.27 of SL. Anal sinus narrow, deep, on peripheral cord. Ground colour greyish, subsutural cord light orange in species where it is strong, sometimes with darker orange central ridge. Radula: marginal teeth shoe-shaped. Central formation rather well developed, with rectangular base and usually weak cusp. In Kilburnigemmula sp. 01, marginal teeth somewhat different —the anterior solid part of tooth much shorter (about 0.25 of total tooth length) than in other species (0.43 0.52) and both limbs about equally developed, while in other species major limb clearly stronger than accessory one.

Etymology: The genus is named after Richard (Dick) Neil Kilburn (1942 2013), eminent South African malacologist and the author of numerous publications on Conoidea, and refers to the earlier conchological concept of Gemmula.

Remarks: The species of the genus are moderately variable in shell shape, albeit with great diíferences in the degree of development of the subsutural cord. In three unrelated species (Kilburnigemmula sp. 06, Kilburnigemmula sp. 08 and one specimen of K, papuensis), the shells acquire very similar oval outline, with weakly angulate shoulder, due to the strong development of the subsutural cord .
The genus is most similar to Mcleanigemmula n. gen., with some species nearly identical conchologically (e.g. Mcleanigemmula ioannisi n. sp. and Kilburnigemmula papuensis n. sp.; Mcleanigemmula sp. 01 and Kilburnigemmula sp. 03). The species can be reliably attributed to either genus based only on molecular data.

Distribution: The genus is broadly distributed in the Indo-West Pacific, from Mozambique and Madagascar, Indonesia and the Philippines to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, the Coral Sea and New Caledonia; depths of 240 910 m.