Shell large, 73.5 mm. in height, narrowly fusiform with a tall spire, greater than height of aperture plus canal. The spire whorls are angulate below the middle and the shoulder area is wide, only slightly concave, and steeply descending. The body-whorl is narrow and slowly contracted to a moderately long unnotched rather straight canal. Sculpture of rather distant ovate axial nodes on the peripheral angle, about 10-11 per whorl, and dense distinct linear spaced smooth spiral cords from below the periphery. The shoulder area is devoid of spirals but exhibits closely spaced axial growth lines, indicating a moderately deep broadly arcuate sinus, the apex of which occupies most of the shoulder slope. Thiele's sansibarica is well figured but not described in detail, nor are measurements cited, but the figure, which shows an adult shell, is evidently natural size, indicating a height of 73.5 mm. and a width of 24 mm.
Thiele proposed this as a new name for an East African deep water species misidentified by Martens, 1903, as Brachytoma griffithi (Gray). At the same time Martens described a var. gracilis from the Pemba Channel, Zanzibar in 818 metres, but Thiele (1925, I.e.) recommended the ignoring of this varietal name since the specimen was not figured nor can it now be located.
Range — Pemba Channel, Zanzibar, 818 metres (type) and Gulf of Aden, 1469 metres.