« Shell generally small, 5-25mm, usually 7-15mm high, shortly claviform, with relatively low spire and a short,truncated, poorly differentiated siphonal canal. Subsutural ramp usually poorly differentiated. Axial sculpture almost always present, usually as strong sinuate ribs. Spiral sculpture normally weak or obsolete, often with glossy shellsurface. Anal sinus on subsutural slope, weak to moderatelydeep, often constrained by callus. Protoconch of up to 3.5 medially carinate but otherwise smooth whorls when multi-spiral, but usually paucispiral and smooth. Operculum with terminal nucleus. » – Bouchet, Kantor, Sysoev & Puillandre: “A new operational classification of the Conoidea (Gastropoda)”, Journal of Molluscan Studies vol.77(3), Oxford 2011, p.293. « This family shares many characters with Pseudomelatomidae, conchologically differing by a small stout shell with short siphonal canal and usually poorly developed spiral sculpture. » – Ibid.
 

Shell minute to small, elongate-ovate; « spire relatively elongate (on average 40% of shell length), conical to cyrtoconoid in outline. Protoconch mamillate to papillate (of 3.8 to 1.3 whorls; average diameter 0.70mm, standard deviation (SD)=0.11mm), with a small tip and regularly convex whorls when polygyrate; if paucispiral, peg-like or bluntly rounded with a larger embryonic whorl than in polygyrate species. Protoconch sculpture consisting of granules with greater density near the suture (not present in all examined species), otherwise smooth except for a few plicae on the last embryonic whorl or restricted to a single one, marking the teleoconch junction. Spire whorls usually convex anteriorly, slightly concave or flat on the sutural ramp; in some specimens whorl sides are almost entirely flat. Last whorl somewhat ovate (average diameter 3.2mm, SD=1.0mm). Anterior canal short or not defined, wide, truncated and even in most specimens. Aperture oval to oblong (max. length 6.0mm), with a parietal callus. Outer lip thin-edged but backed by a varix, and internally thickened in most specimens. Anal sinus subsutural, broad, shallow to moderately deep, its shape sometimes modified by the parietal callus. Sculpture of rounded-topped, wide, straight or slightly curved ribs (8 on the last whorl of most specimens, SD=1.1), extending from suture to suture, accompanied by growth lines. Flat, densely packed spiral threads constitute a characteristic feature of the genus. These threads are variable in number and dimensions between species (see Appendix 1). Operculum leaf-shaped with a terminal nucleus. » – Scarponi & Ceregato: “The genus Haedropleura (Neogastropoda, Toxoglossa=Conoidea) in the Plio-Quaternary of the Mediterranean basin”, Zootaxa 2796, Wellington 2011, p.39.