The size of an adult shell varies between 32 mm and 65 mm. The shell is rather solid, smooth, grooved towards the base. Its color is ash-white, with dark chestnut hieroglyphic characters, interrupted by revolving series of spots in the middle and at the base.
This species occurs in the Red Sea and in the Indian Ocean off Madagascar and KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa; also found off Western Thailand and in the Aegean Sea (as an introduced alien)