The name refers to the styliform shape of the shell, which is characterized by its « narrow, subcylindrical apex of four whorls, which are parted by a broadish, very slightly impressed suture; the tip is blunt, rounded, and smooth (or perhaps, when quite fresh, very faintly fretted); the other three apical whorls are very finely scored longitudinally by slightly fretted riblets which, near the bottom of each whorl, are cut across by two small approximate spiral threads. » – R. B. Watson: “On the Cerithiopsides from the Eastern side of the North Atlantic with three new species from Madeira”, Journal of the Linnean Society of London. Zoology vol. 19 (109), London 1885, p.94.

« On the base just within the contraction is a single circumbasal thread, between which and the pillar the base is very slightly and flatly depressed, and is scored across by minute radiating bars. » – Ibid. Above: a specimen, with egg-shell missing, from 26m deep, Punta de la Mona, east of La Herradura, Granada, Andalucia. 6,7mm.