Shell small, 12 mm. (1/2 inch) in height, drilliaform, narrowly subcylindrical, solid, sculptured with strong spiral cords, smooth except for the sinus one, which bears laterally elongated slightly raised losenge-shaped nodes. These nodes are accentuated by being picked out by a surrounding diffusion of pale reddish brown blotches on an otherwise creamy-white ground. Spire less than twice height of aperture plus canal. Postnuclear whorls about 10 (apex eroded). Spire-whorls sculptured with a heavy, narrowly ridged, subsutural cord, followed by the weakly nodulose sinus rib, and two plain, narrowly ridged cords between it and the lower suture. The subsutural cord is strongest, but those following it diminish only slightly in strength; seven cords on the body-whorl from below the sinus rib to the end of the anterior canal; one or two intermediate spiral threads over the region of the neck. There are about nine nodes on the sinus cord of the last whorl. Parietal callus-pad heavy. Sinus deep, U-shaped, at the termination of the nodulose rib. Height 12 mm. Width 4.5 mm.

This species belongs to the astricta group. It is readily distinguished by its narrow form and the reversed colour pattern, in that the peripheral nodes are colourless, being defined by a surrounding diffused brown blotching. The Japanese record, based upon Oyama and Takemura's figures, shows a shell with smaller and more numerous nodes.

Samoa and Japan.