[1] In the 17th and 18th century this was once considered to be a very rare shell and specimens changed hands for large sums of money.

This species is distributed in the Red Sea, in the Indian Ocean along Madagascar and South Africa, in the South West Pacific Ocean and along Fiji Islands and Japan.

However this species is particularly striking, partly because it is very large compared with the great majority of other species within the genus, but also because the whorls themselves do not touch and so the shell is held together only by the well-developed ribs or costae.

The shell of Epitonium scalare has sculpture consisting of raised ribs that are known as costae.

Dance, S. Peter, 1969, Rare Shells, University of California Press.128 p, 24 color plates, ISBN 9780571082179