Shell fusiform, with broadly conic spire and long, straight, tapered canal. Whorls 8, including a smooth papillate typical protoconch of 2 whorls. Spire rather squat, less than half the height of the aperture plus canal; angle 55°, outline strongly keeled just below the middle of the whorls and excavated below at suture. Sculptured with distant sharply raised spiral cords, three above and two below the peripheral carina on spire whorls and about 24 on the base and neck; six of these are stronger than the rest and occupy the base from level with the top of the aperture to the commencement of the neck and canal. All post-nuclear whorls crossed by numerous weak axial folds which crenulate the peripheral carina, forming 23 to 24 blunt tubercles per whorl. The axials become rapidly obsolete over the base. Colour uniformly white. Height. 81 mm.; diameter, 21.5mm.
Locality: 60-70 fathoms off Eastern Otago (trawled by Captain J. Black, Dunedin).
The Otago shell represents a distinct species with a short broadly conic spire (55°) and very numerous peripheral crenulations.