The dorsum surface of these smooth and shiny shells is generally pale brown, pale purple or grey, densely covered with small and large dark brown or purple dots.

The aperture is long and narrow, with several white teeth and a bright reddish spacing.

In the living cowries the mantle is transparent, with tree-shaped white sensorial papillae and may cover the entire shell.

This species occurs in the Red Sea, in the Indian Ocean along South-East Africa (Aldabra, Chagos, Kenya, Madagascar, the Mascarene Basin, Mauritius, Réunion, the Seychelles, Zanzibar and Tanzania) and in the western Pacific Ocean (Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, western and northern Australia, Polynesia and Hawaii).

These cowries live in tropical shallow water, subtidal and intertidal, usually under rocks or corals up to about 10 metres (33 ft)of depth.