Distinctive features are I) broadly conical, turreted shell up to 40 mm in height, 2) teleoconch whorls strongly convex, meeting at narrowly fenestrate sutures, 3) umbilicus deep but narrow, 4) aperture oval, with thin peristome, the inner lip reflexed over the umbilicus, 5) sculpture of 26 thin, low lamellar ribs that are slightly more elevated adapically; interspaces wide, with occasional, faint spiral striae. The closely related Epitonium emiliae (Melvill & Standen, 1903) seems to differ in that has somewhat slenderer shell with more numerous (up to 36) ribs.
DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT. Epitonium imperiale is distributed in the tropical Indo-West Pacific, from South Africa to Australia and northward to Japan. It is a sublittoral element dwelling in sand, often associated with sea anemones (WILSON, 1993; TSUCHIDA in OKUTANI, 2000). FOSSIL RECORDS. None recorded.