Shell moderately small, 20.0-26.0mm in length, elongate-ovate, moderately solid. White to greyish-white in colour, ornamented with nebulous brown streaks on spire whorls and 2-3 narrow or moderately broad brown bands on body whorl; the brown bands occasionally broken up into axial streaks, the sutures having irregularly spaced and more saturated small brown spots. Teleoconch of 4,75-5,5 whorls, first two post-nuclear whorls convex, later whorls almost flat-sided, partly preserved protoconch consisting of 1,5 + smooth, white nuclear whorls. First post-nuclear whorl sculptured with 5-7 minutely pitted spiral grooves, penultimate whorl with 6-8 grooves and body whorl with 14-20 grooves, apart from up to a dozen oblique cords towards base of body whorl; the spiral grooves bisected by numerous, close-set axial lirae rendering the grooves pitted. Spiral grooves either broad or narrow giving rise to broad or narrow, angulate spiral threads which appear stepped in profile; sutures narrowly incised and irregularly crenate by the intruding axial lirae. Aperture longer than spire, narrow, smooth and porcellaneous-white within; outer lip regularly convex and minutely but bluntly crenulate on the moderately thickened margin. Columella calloused, white, and with 5 strong, oblique folds which decrease in size anteriorly; in some adult specimens anterior end of columellar callus terminating in a small point recurving towards aperture. Siphonal canal short, siphonal notch distinct, siphonal fasciole corded and calloused in adult individuals.
TYPE LOCALITY. Flinders Bay, Augusta, southwest Australia, intertidal.
KNOWN RANGE.From Onslow to Flinders Bay, Augusta.
Holotype. In the Western Australian Museum, Perth, No. 14-72; length 22.6mm, width 9.5mm, height of aperture 14.8mm

Scabricola backae is the only species in the genus which extends from tropical waters to warm temperate waters (c. 16°C) of the southwest Australian tropic-temperate faunal transition zone. The species can be compared with Scabricola desetangsii (Kiener, 1838) from the tropical Indo-Pacific but it lacks this species prominent spiral cords, gemmate spire-whorl sculpture, shorter spire and narrower aperture. S. backae is perhaps nearest to Mitra hayashii Kira, 1959, from Japan, but this species is more slender and pterygine in form, the spire is shorter, the aperture more narrow and fusiform and the sculpture is finer with more numerous and close-set spiral grooves. Scabricola barrywilsoni (J. Cale, 1968), which ranges from Onslow, West Australia, to Darwin, Northern Territory, differs in form, formation of whorls, sculpture and colour-pattern