Above, the animal pictured in Forbes & Hanley: A history of British Mollusca and their shells vol. I, London 1853, plate JJ.
 
The species is « abundant all around our shores; plentiful everywhere dead in shell-sand, and living under stones and among corallines near low-water mark. Hence it ranges in great quantity throughout the Laminarian region. » – Forbes & Hanley: op. cit. vol. III, London 1853, p.102.

Shell « of a subconic or taper shape, ending in a sharp point. The colours vary, often milk white and glossy, which rather seem worn shells that have lost their colour, as the work on them is also impaired, or not so sharp and fine. Many are of a fine violet colour, and glossy, and have the work pretty strong; but the most perfect shells, and in greater number, are brown and white, as they have the work on them very strong and in relief. The mouth is round, and surrounded on the outside by a thick prominent ledge or border. It has no umbilicus. The spires are five, all gradually tapering to a sharp tip, and separated by a depression. They are wrought with very prominent longitudinal ribs, thick set. I have received these shells from the coast of Guernsey, from Cornwall, and from Devonshire. It is also a shell of the Mediterranean. » – E. M. da Costa: Historia naturalis testaceorum Britanniæ, London 1778, p.104. – In intertidal pools at low spring tide, Western Ledges, near Wyke Regis, Portland Harbour, Dorset, S. United Kingdom. Notice the microspirals between each longitudinal fold.

Growth series showing a young shell (top-left, unsculptured, patterned) and the opposite (top-right, unpatterned, with strongly marked radial costae on the body whorl). Intergrades display costae of various strenght (always slightly opisthocline), inner spiral bands, and a brown labial croissant.

« In September 2013, a sample of gastropod molluscs was collected from the abandoned algae on the floor of a fisherman’s boat, after the cleaning of his bottom-set net, in the port of Cala Iris, located at approximately 60km west of Al Hoceima (mediterranean coast of Morocco). This is a local artisanal fishing activity, carried out on a rowing boat equipped with a small engine, in an area near the port, about fifteen meters deep. Among the specimens of different species of Rissoidae, two live specimens of Rissoa parva caught our attention. » – Delongueville & Scaillet: “Rissoa parva (da Costa, 1778) - présence en Mer d’Alborán”, Xenophora 147, july 2014, p.8-12.