Shell small, thin, highly conical to depressed conoidal, oval, with very fine radiate striae and irregular brown bands. Good specimens show indistinct and very low radiate riblets, corresponding to the brown lines, and under a strong lens fine and close radiate threads can be distinguished, crossed by still finer concentric growth-lines ; in most examples this sculpture is lost, the shells being eroded. The colour of the type is light brown, with a few dark concentric bands and spots around the margin ; the much more common conoidal form is dirty-white, with radiate brown or black lines which reach up to the apex, or, more often, ornate only the lower half of the shell, the upper half being tessellated with black and white. Apex at about the anterior third, directed forward and sharply pointed, but very often rounded off by erosion ; the slopes are broadly convex posteriorly, straight or distinctly concave anteriorly. Interior light brown to white; central area dark brown, with patches of lighter colour, sometimes quite white ; margin sharp, with brown dots and lines.
Length, 4,5 mm. ; breadth, 4 mm. ; height, 3,5 mm. (type). Length, 9 mm. ; breadth, 7 mm. ; height, 4 mm. (the common form).

New Zealand. The type is from Sumner, near Christchurch, where it is found living on rocks between clusters of Modiolus ater; Heathcote Estuary ; Lyttelton ; Oamaru ; Cape Saunders ; Greymouth ; Taumaki Island ; Cook Strait; Evans Bay, Wellington Harbour ; East Cape Lighthouse ; Auckland Harbour ; west coast, between Manukau and Kaipara ; Bay of Islands ; Chatham Islands.