Shell minute, long and slender, turreted, terminating obtusely. Whorls seven, plus an inclined heterostrophe protoconch, angled at the periphery, slowly increasing. Colour translucent white. Sculpture: above the angle are no spirals, at and below it numerous spiral grooves, finer and crowded at the angle, deeper and wider spaced below it. Across these and the smooth belt between the angle and suture run fine flexuous growth-lines. Base rounded, imperforate. Aperture pyriform, outer lip sharp, columella expanded. Height 2,3 mm.; breadth 0,75 mm.

Description. — Shell : the original description (Hedley, 1907) is as follows: "Shell minute, long and slender, turreted, terminating obtusely. Whorls seven, plus an inclinate heterostrophe protoconch, angel at the periphery, slowly increasing. Colour translucent white. Sculpture: above the angle are no spirals, at and below it numerous spiral cordlets, finer and crowled at the angle, deeper and wider spaced below it. Across these and the smooth belt between the angle and the suture run fine flexuous growth lines. Base rounded, imperforate. Aperture pyriform, outer lip sharp, columella expanded".
Additional description: Protoconch relatively large, with a nucleus of very small size, and a little more than 1 whorl. Teleoconch with up to 6-7 whorls. Shoulder only slightly appreciable; the upper part is about 30-40%. Below it, there are very small striae in number of 9 crossed by axial growth lines. Above the shoulder up to the suture the surface is smooth only with curved growth lines. As it is usual in the genus, in the upper part the growth lines are opisthocyrt while in the lower part are prosocyrt. Dimensions: Hedley (1907) mentions a shell height of 2-3 mm; the lectotype selected is 2.1 mm high.
Distribution. — Hedley (1907) mentions the presence of this species in 17-20 fathoms off the Hope Islands. We have examined material from New Caledonia.
Remarks. — This species name has been used for some specimens from the Red Sea, Mediterranean and West Africa. Apparently this was only based on the general similarity. The species found in the eastern Mediterranean has been identified as M. columns by Bogi et al. (1995) and Zenetos et al. (2003). They considered it a migrant from the Indo-Pacific through the Red Sea. The Mediterranean species, here named M. mediterranea, is different. The whorls of the teleoconch have a rounded profile and the separation between the upper and the lower parts is hardly noticeable. The subsutural zone is granular and lacks growth lines, whereas those are distinct in M columna. In this last species there are also fewer furrows in the lower part of the whorl.
Murchisonella declivita (Laseron, 1951) has a protoconch with a smaller nucleus; the separation of the two parts of the whorl is more distinctly angular, the subsutural part is always narrower and the growth lines are scarcely noticeable; the spiral sculpture of the lower part of the whorls is formed by depressions or excavation and not by little ridges or furrows. Murchisonella anabathron (Hedley, 1906) has a larger shell with more conspicuous spiral sculpture which is formed by furrows (instead of little ridges). It is also. Murchisonella densistriata (Nomura, 1936) has an indistinct separation between the two parts of the whorls and evenly convex whorls; the shell is larger, narrow and elongate and the spiral sculpture is denser.

Australia. Queensland. Mast Head Reef, Capricorn Group.