There are six broad wall plates surrounding a hexagonal orifice at the top, which is protected by a pair of opercular valves.

When discussing this species, the zoologist Charles Darwin (who devoted much of his career to barnacles) stated that he knew of the precise locations where four specimens were found, the arctic seas around Scandinavia, the east coast of North America, near the coast of the British Isles, and from the Gulf Stream.

Another reported location was New Zealand, but Darwin suspected that this was an error, and might be Coronula reginae.

Here internal fertilisation takes place and the embryos are brooded until the first moult.

Laboratory experiments suggest that the cyprid larvae are induced to settle and undergo metamorphosis into juvenile barnacles in response to chemical cues from the skin of suitable host whales.