Shell fusiform; with rather long, straight-sided spire and acute apex. There are nine whorls of which two and a half nuclear are smooth. Sculpture of about 11 rounded axial ribs on the last whorl, weakening, not nodu¬lose, below the suture; the ribs and intervals smooth above the periphery but with spiral cords below it, increasing in strength anteriorly; on the last half of the last whorl the ribs are obsolete except near the suture. Spire with much smaller axial ribs, about twice as numerous. Color brownish black, a little lighter below the suture, with an interrupted peripheral band of irregular shaped white blotches or dashes of white, and some smaller white spots, below the subsutural band. Aperture narrow. Outer lip thick, showing six whitish tubercles within. Columella straight, covered with a thin dark callus with a free white edge, with a straight series of five transverse tubercles. Length 13.5 mm., diam. 5.5 mm.

Anachis spadicea Phil, has much the same outline and color, but is smaller and a trifle broader, with the first five whorls horn colored and there are more numerous ribs on the last whorl. Anachis gilva Menke is a heavier shell with rough epidermis and the ribs are nodulose below the suture. Neither of these species shows more than a mere crenulation in comparison with the strong columellar denticulation of this species. An immature specimen does not show the characteristic dental display in the aperture and it differs in color, having a subsutural band of irregular cream-white blotches, a strong peripheral band and three narrower bands of the same color on the anterior part of the last whorl.