« Shell ovato-conical, thin, semitransparent, smooth and somewhat glossy, of a yellowish colour, marked on each whorl with four equidistant rows of reddish brown spots (about twelve in each row) which are generally confluent on the upper row, giving it a streaky appearance; whorls 4½, convex and rather swollen, the last being about half the size of the spire; apex blunt; suture deep and distinct; base broad and spread; aperture roundish; peristome detached and simple, slightly thickened on the pillar side; umbilicus small but deep… » – J. G. Jeffreys: “Notices of British shells”, Annals and Magazine of Natural History ser. 2, vol. 2, Lobndon 1848, p.351.