Shell of medium size, 28-34 mm. in height, fusiform-biconic, with pagodiform spire, a little taller than the height of the aperture plus canal, and base rapidly contracted to a moderately long, slightly flexed, unnotched anterior canal. Whorls 8,5, including a paucispiral smooth subnaticoid protoconch of 1,5 whorls. Post nuclear whorls strongly ungulate just above the suture, which is unmargined. Axial sculpture of strong rounded nodules, laterally compressed, barely encroaching on the shoulder area and not reaching the suture below; 16-18 nodules per whorl. Shoulder area wide, slightly concave and steeply descending. Surface smooth except for faint traces of fine spiral lirations, and numerous but irregular axial growth lines. Sinus of moderate depth, rather narrowly U-shaped, its apex below the middle of the shoulder slope. Colour either white with a thin pale yellowish periostracum, or typically, with the addition of reddish brown bands or zones, one occupying the shoulder area and the other the upper part of the base. Operculum ovate, clavatulid, with a medio-lateral nucleus on the columellar side.