« Shell forming a short spindle, rather thin, opaque and lustreless. Sculpture: numerous and slight but irregular longitudinal striae, which cover every part of the shell; there are also several broader and flattened spiral ridges, about 6 on the body-whorl, 3 or 4 on the penultimate, 2 on the next, 1 on the rest, and none on the two uppermost whorls. Colour yellowish-white. Spire short, ending in a smooth and glossy rounded point, which is usually twisted to the left. Whorls 6, swollen, bluntly angulated above; the last occupies five ninths of the spire. Suture wide and deep. Mouth roundish-oval, expanded; length five ninths of the spire. » – J. G. Jeffreys: “Black Sea Mollusca”, The Annals and magazine of natural history ser.5 vol.10, London 1882, p.426.

« Canal short, open, turning to the left, and terminating in an excavated notch; externally it is marked only by the longitudinal striae, which are there close-set and irregular. Outer lip projecting, bluntly angulated above; edge sharp; inside or throat quite smooth. Inner lip thin, reflected. Pillar broad, curved and flattened, with a sharp edge. Operculum yellow, triangular, marked with curved striae in the line of growth; nucleus terminal and blunt. » – Ibid.

The shell of this species differs from that of muricata by its shorter spire (“breviatus”), and by the sculpture, in which the radial folds, thin and numerous, strongly dominate on the spirals, which are almost obsolete, especially near the apex.