Description. Shell sturdy, height 20-27 mm. Ground color gray-yellow to light yellow; whorls concave above, shoulder convex; periphery flat, shoulder sloping tabulate; threads low, beaded, dark brown dashes form broken lines; body whorl flammules, when present, gray-brown, vary in intensity; base rounded, basal threads shallow/alternating light brown-orange spots, columella/scar metallic silver.
Distribution. Cedros Island (28°N), Baja California, Gulf of California, south to Peru (10°S). Specimens have been collected intertidally on muddy sand and to depths of 50-60 m. Locally common.
Remarks. Both Dall (1921) and Oldroyd (1927) listed Santa Catalina Island off southern California as the northern extent of the range. Reeve (1842a, 1842b) was not the source, as he only mentions the type locality in Panama. One dubious specimen is in the SDNHM from La Jolla (San Diego), but the data card with the same number as the shell lacked both date and collector and was for a series of C. tricolor.