Shells minute to small, translucent, cerithiiform, but without anterior canal in the aperture. The genus Scaliola is used to attach to its shell some micro debris.
 

Shell pupoid, with very convex whorls (the largest diameter of each being found in its middle) and a marked suture; sculpture more or less cancellated, without varix; in natalensis the radials are rough, strong, few, while the spirals are much more numerous and weaker; a contrario, in lutosa or pupoides, radials and spirals are of about equal strength and numbers; sometimes a kind of keel appears at the periphery of the whorls (adamsi, purpureoapicata…); aperture oval, labial margin thin; no umbilicus.
 

Shell minute, with convex whorls and a marked suture; aperture almost round; surprisingly, Adams did not notice what is, since Jousseaume, considered as the most remarkable characteristic of the genus Scaliola: its members are used to sprinkling their shell with the tiniest sand grains.