The shell is small (maximum length 15 mm) and stoutly biconical. The spire is high and slender, consisting of five or six convex to barely angulate, ventricose postnuclear whorls and a protoconch of undetermined nature. The suture is moderately impressed. The body whorl is small to moderate in size and stoutly trigonal. The aperture is moderately small and ovate, with a moderately deep and broad anal sulcus. The outer apertural lip is barely erect, if at all; its inner surface bears six moderately strong denticles, these becoming lirae more deeply within. The columellar lip is entirely adherent; a weak node delimits the left side of the anal sulcus at its pos¬terior end, a single weak plica is evident at the midpoint of the anal sulcus, and a pair of weak, oblique-elongate pustules are apparent at its an¬terior end. The siphonal canal is very short, open, and slightly bent to the right and dorsally.
The body whorl bears four sharp-crested, oblique varices separated by moderately broad interspaces. Spiral sculpture consists of four major cords, these moderately strong just before and on the varices and obsolete between them; the two posterior cords are close together, the cords otherwise evenly spaced.
The ground color of the shell is white, with pale-brown markings between cords on the lower part of the body. The aperture is suffused with violet.
In gerontic individuals the shell has quite a different character: it becomes exaggeratedly coarse and heavy, and all the varices become huge and thickened, imparting an obtuse appearance to the typically slender spire.

Our specimens are from the Line Islands (Christmas Island and Palmyra Island); the type locality is Mauritius.