Shell small, ovate-lanceolate, with rounded whorls. Colour orange, with a white median zone. Whorls eight, including a protoconch of three whorls, and of the usual pattern. Sculpture : On the last whorl are twelve spirals, the anterior ones being fine threads on the snout, and the median ones represented by crescentic beads on the riblets ; there are four spirals on the penultimate; radials discontinuous and perpendicular, amounting to twelve on the last, whorl. A prominent varix extends a free limb towards the aperture; within it are five small tubercles; the pillar lip has two transverse plaits ; canal short; sinus broad and effuse. Length 5,5 mm., breadth 2,2 mm.

E. catapasta may be briefly described as a miniature of E. opsimathes Melvill and Standen, with which it closely corresponds in sculpture and colour, but from which it differs by being a third of the length, having a whorl less, broader form, and more delicate sculpture.

Australia: Queensland, Torres Straits ; Lady Elliot Island;Van Diemens Inlet, Gulf of Carpentaria. Papua New Guinea