Shell of medium size, trimly conic below the sharp carina-like angle of the very high shoulder; spire low, barely yet acutely turreted by the exposed shoulder-carination, the slope distinctly concave, apex acute. Aperture narrow, of nearly constant width; labrum thin, arcuate; canal slightly produced; anal sulcus open and moderately deepened to its almost rectangular junction with the whorl above. Shell pure white inside and out, save for a variable amount of warm brown maculation, the spots mostly rather large and vertically elongate, besides often tending to a certain alignment in 2 to 3 spiral bands, the spire carrying a series of smaller spots. Periostracum soft brown, the darker shell-markings showing through; cloth-like, the pile incrementally aligned and scratchy-looking under a lens, with 20 to 25 well-spaced, sparsely fringed, spiral threads on unworn areas of body-whorl; on the anal fasciole the increments become shaggily lamellose and more or less cut spirally, when unbroken rising on the angle to form a conspicuous fringe of fuzzy hair-like processes rather absurdly suggesting a tonsure. Alt. of holotype 45.0, max. diam. at shoulder 21.9 mm.; whorls ca. 10.8.


Type-Locality: Trawled in 24-26 fms., off Morro Colorado, Sonora; Antonio Luna, Nov. 1967.


Comparisons: The most distinctive feature of the present species is its remarkable periostracum. The curious fringing of the angular shoulder is unique in our species so far as known. With the periostracum removed the shells appear less distinctive, but may be separated from the succeeding species by the brownish rather than golden maculation, and from the quite similar C. virgatus Reeve by their sharply trim outline, narrow aperture, and strong tendency to the development of a medial white band.