In the Mediterranean Sea, only near the Strait of Gibraltar. It prefers rocky bottoms.

Micali (1999) believes this species is a simple variety in colour of C. turritellata, while CLEMAM thinks it is a valid species. Really the characteristic that makes this species recognizable is just the colour pattern with bands (sometimes present also in turritellata, brunnea and procerula). This bicoloured chromatism consists in wide white bands, usually in the central part of the whorls, alternated with brown bands, generally under the sutur and in the inferior part of the shell. For the rest, the profile, the sculpture and the sizes, are completely the same as per C. turritellata. As far as this species is concerned, only the adult imaged shell is represented.