Shell of moderate size, acute, livid purple-brown, with a semitranslucent whitish overlayer, and a thin dehiscent olivaceous periostracum; nucleus small, irregularly swollen, of about one whorl, with about five subsequent whorls; the earlier two or three whorls have four or five low, wide, fiat spiral cords with obscurely channeled interspaces, these rapidly become obsolete and on the last whorl appear quite smooth except for fine, silky, incremental lines; suture distinct, somewhat appressed; aperture wide, ovate, angular behind, the outer lip expanded, white, the throat dark brown, the body with a thin glaze which extends to the pillar, which is twisted and attenuated; the canal short, wide, somewhat recurved; operculum normal. Height of shell, 50; of last whorl, 39; of aperture, 30; max. diam., 26 mm. (Dall.)
TYPE in United States National Museum, No. 130418. Type locality, United States Fish Commission Station 3461, in Straits of Juan de Fuca.
RANGE. Nunivak Island to Straits of Juan de Fuca.