Varices aligned up spire sides, at least on early part of spire; posterior canals short to very long, when long aligned up previous varices on spire; shell dorsoventrally compressed, light in weight, sculptured with numerous rows of small granules and, in some species, with nodules or spines at the shoulders of the varices. Seminal groove open. Operculum fan-shaped with nucleus in centre of adaxial margin, as in Cassidae subfamily Phaliinae, to subcentral near adaxial margin, to almost central (in B. nobilis).

Awide range of shape, degree of spination of the varices, and amount of sculpture of the inner-lip shield is here included in Bufonaria s.s., but all types intergrade and there are no anatomical or opercular differences between the synonymised taxa, except as noted below for Bursina Oyama. The variceal and siphonal features used by Dall (1904, p.118) and Oyama (1964) to distinguish such ''genera" as Marsupina and Chasmotheca from Bufonaria are considered to be specific characters only.

Bufonaria is the genus of moderate-sized to large, dorso-ventrally compressed Bursidae with high varices completely aligned up spire sides (except in large adult B. fernandesi Beu (1977)) and finely gemmate surface sculpture. Indo-West Pacific species (subgenus Bufonaria sensu stricto) have an operculum with the nucleus near the centre of the columellar margin, as in the ranellid subgenus Cymatium (Ranularia) and the Cassidae Phaliinae, whereas the American species with superficially similar shells (B. bufo (Bruguiere, 1792) = spadiceus Montfort, 1810, etc., western Atlantic; and B. nana (Broderip & Sowerby, 1829) = albofasciata G. B. Sowerby II, 1836, Panamic western America) have an operculum with an anterior terminal nucleus, and seem best ranked in the subgenus Bufonaria (Marsupina) Dall, 1904. A further subgenus is represented by the European and West African Miocene to Recent B. marginata (Gmelin, 1791), which has aligned varices and a finely gemmate surface but a very short spire and a short, inflated shell; the operculum is as in Bufonaria sensu stricto. It seems best placed in subgenus Bufonaria (Aspa) H. Adams & A. Adams, 1853. The many diverse Indo-West Pacific species of B. (Bufonaria) are greatly in need of revision, but it is clear that the following common, conspicuous species is unnamed.