Spire moderately high, angle usually 50-60°. Shell width approximately half shell length. Aperture slightly longer than spire. Periphery of body whorl situated approximately half way up shell. Sculpture usually weak to fairly strong spiral ribs, often nodulate, early whorls cancellate. Typically between 10 and 14 ribs on body whorl, with fine spiral striae on and between ribs. Whorls slightly to moderately depressed below suture; profile of upper whorls slightly convex. Aperture usually plicate internally. Pale brown parietal scar usually present, sometimes absent. Periostracum thin, papery brownish-yellow. Shell colour yellowish-brown to reddish-brown occasionally pale brown, sometimes with pale whitish-brown spiral bands on body whorl; raised spiral ribs usually with alternating dark brown and pale whitish-brown dashes, most prominent on upper half of body whorl and on spire, giving a flecked or axially flamed appearance; this pattern is most evident in beach-worn specimens. Aperture white to light mauve-brown. Live specimens covered by a bryozoan, possibly Alcyonidium nodosum. Proboscis flesh coloured. Maximum shell length 41 mm.

Burnupena pubescens occurs subtidally in boulder-strewn habitats, and is not as common as B. papyracea. As noted above, the bryozoan covering needs to be removed from living specimens before they can be identified. B. pubescens can be confused with both B. papyracea and denseliriata, and differences between it and B. papyracea have been discussed above. B. pubescens differs from B. denseliriata in the number of spiral ribs or ridges on the body whorl - typically 10 to 14 in B. pubescens and more than 14 in B. denseliriata, and in the presence of nodules in B. pubescens on the shell other than on the top whorls. The presence of axial flames on the body whorl is common in B. pubescens but has not been observed in B. denseliriata.

South Africa. False Bay to KwaZulu-Natal, and sporadically on the west coast as far as Saldanha Bay