Animal broadly ovate, girdle broad, shell usually eroded. Median valves with lateral and pleural area hardly separated except for indistinct dividing ridge; both areas sculptured with coarse, wavy longitudinal ridges. Girdle appears smooth without magnification, densely spiculose with magnification. Aesthetes distinct, appearing as black spots; on head valve arranged in 9 radiating rows, on median valves a single row along the junction of lateral and pleural areas. Valve colour variable; cream, fawn or greenish, streaked or blotched with red, brown, green or black; jugum often fawn with thick dark brown line. Girdle uniformly pinkish brown, or pinkish brown with white bands.

Endemic to Australia, occurring in two non-contiguous area; Torres Strait, Qld, southwards to Sydney, NSW, and south-western WA, from Esperance to Shark Bay.
Lives on the upper surface of rocks on exposed rocky shores around low tide level and below, among algae and Pyura sea squirts. Common, sometimes abundant.