This shell can be easily recognized due to its quite defined sculpture and to its wide aperture. Owing to its spiral microsculpture this species was included in the genus Manzonia Brusina, 1870 for a long time. Moolenbeek & Faber, 1987 included it in the subgenus Flemellia in Alvania. Shell with whorls convex, angular, crossed by spiral cords and axial ribs of the same thickness making a reticulated sculpture, tubercles more or less sharp at the intersections. Penultimate whorl with three spiral cords, last whorl (60% of total height) with five spiral cords. Canaliculus suture. Aperture (40% of total height) oval in form, lip thickened and with nodules. Light brown in colour pattern as far as the fresh specimens are concerned. The average measures are around 3.5 mm.

Shell with rather tall spire, blunt tip, sutures (in profile) at base of deep, V-shaped notches; whorls tumid with coarse lattice of costae and spiral ridges. Two prominent, smooth, spiral keels bound a gutter on base of last whorl, the costae stopping above them. Labial varix prominent. No teeth within outer lip. White or yellowish, usually orange alongside varix and on basal keel.
A. zetlandica looks like a coarser version of Alvania cimicoides or A. cancellata , the dips to the sutures exaggerated in the profile, the reticulation coarser; the basal keels, however, identify it clearly. There are 6-7 whorls, the last with 13-16 prosocline costae, the penult with 13-14, the next with 11-12, the larval whorls smooth. There are 6 spiral ridges on the last whorl, the upper four crossing costae and tuberculated, the fifth and sixth forming smooth keels round the basal gutter. Up to 4mm high, 2.5 mm broad; last whorl occupies 60% of shell height, aperture 40%.
A. zetlandica is an uncommon sublittoral animal in local waters and is confined to western British and Irish coasts, where it is dredged 20-350 m deep on gravelly and soft bottoms, more frequently in the south than in the north. The species is spread from the Mediterranean to Norway.
Since the protoconch seems to show two sections, Thiriot-Quievreux & Babio (1975) have interpreted this to indicate an embryonic and then a larval stage in the life history.

Alvania zetlandica may be recognised by its very strongly sculptured shell and large aperture.

Uncommon in the Western Mediterranean where it is found even in remarkable depths (also more than 1000 m. It prefers sandy and gravelly bottoms swept by currents.

Northern Norway from ca 69-70°to the western Mediterranean, in about 30-300 m. Not known from Iceland and the Faeroes. Depth range usually 30-300 m Only empty shells known from the Skagerrak.