Shell up to 5.55 mm in diameter and about as high, very thick; spire up to 0.77 x as high as body whorl. Lectotype white, with a few scattered spots of pale purplish brown. Kermadec specimens uniform yellowish white, faintly nacreous through thin, translucent outer shell layer.
Protoconch clearly demarcated, of 1 convex whorl sculptured with minute, crisp, irregular, spirally and axially elongate granules.
Teleoconch of up to 4,5 whorls, reticulately sculptured with prominent, rounded spiral cords and axial costae with roundly nodular intersections. Early whorls with an almost horizontal sutural ramp; ramp progressively steepening until mature whorls evenly convex. Spire whorls regularly expanding; body whorl descending slightly at maturity. Spiral cords numbering 4 on spire whorls, 3 on base. Spiral 1 weak, appearing at start of 2nd whorl and occupying ramp between suture and 2nd spiral; other spirals strong, similar, regularly spaced; spiral 2 forming shoulder angulation; spiral 3 peripheral; spiral 4 partly exposed at suture on spire whorls. Axial costae extending between sutures and over base, narrower than spirals, very numerous, lamellar and closely spaced on 1st 1,5 whorls then parting and enlarging, numbering approximately 28 on 1st whorl, 35 on 2nd, 21 on 3rd. Microsculpture on early whorls consisting of crisp granules; later whorls with fine, close, crisp, prosocline axial lamellae and minute granules throughout. Base evenly contracted, convex. Umbilicus narrow and perspective to protoconch in immaturity, closed by columella at maturity. Columella thick, porcellanous, with a rounded denticle at base. Aperture inclined backward, subcircular. Parietal and inner lips porcellanous glazes. Outer lip thick, with 7 rounded denticles similar to columella denticle.

The main characteristics of this species are:
♦ height up to 6 mm, width up to 6 mm;
♦ moderately elevated spire;
♦ teleoconch roundly conical to weakly cyrtoconoidal, of about 4 convex whorls with 4 strong, similar in size, moderately thick, granular spiral cords on last whorl; P3 appearing near end of first whorl, quickly strong on second whorl and making keel; P2 appearing on second whorl, quickly almost as strong as P3; PI resolving and P4 emerging from suture on third whorl; last whorl very convex, the three abapical cords making keel, distance between them 2x width of cords;
♦ prosocline, rather thick axial threads; sculpture cancellate, more or less foveolate on last whorls;
♦ aperture subcircular, with denticles all around the outer lip;
♦ base convex with 3 spiral cords, the innermost a bit weaker and bordering the umbilicus; distance between cords lx to 1.5x width of cords;
♦ narrow umbilicus, deep, possibly partly covered by a callus on mature shells;
♦ white to yellowish white.

Compared to type material, Kermadec specimens are slightly lower-spired and lack the sparse colour spots. The description is composite -details of protoconch microsculpture are based on Kermadec material. Euchelus (Vaceuchelus) angulatus Pease (see Ladd 1966, p. 34, pl. 3 fig. 17-19) is extremely similar but lacks apertural denticles.

KNOWN DISTRIBUTION: . Marutea Atoll, Tuamotu Archipelago; Fiji Islands and Philippine Islands (Pilsbry 1889); Raoul Island, Kermadec group, probably littoral.

Solomon Islands, 277-366 m (dd); French Polynesia, Australes Archipelago, 200-250 m (dd); Philippines (using also data of Poppe et al., 2006), 4-105 m (dd).