Herpetopoma instrictum, common name the basket-like false top shell, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Chilodontaidae.

They are ventricose, with delicate, highly elevated spiral rib-striae,- of which there are about 5 on the upper and 10 on the last whorl.

The surface of the ribs is slightly tuberculous, and the last one overhangs the succeeding whorl so as to form a broad deep channel at the suture.

The base of the shell isconvex, with a small deep scalariform umbilicus, sculptured like the spire.

[6] This marine species occurs off Japan, the Philippines, New Caledonia and Fiji.