[3] The shape is usually long oval, the dorsum surface is smooth and shiny, the basic color is brown, usually with three wide dark brown trasversal bands and several white-bluish spots and a light gray longitudinal mark on the top ('sulcus').

The base of Macrocypraea zebra shell is pale brown and the long and narrow aperture usually bears long dark brown labial teeth.

In the living cowries of Macrocypraea zebra the mantle is greyish, with short sensorial papillae.

This species is distributed in the Atlantic Ocean along North Carolina, Florida and in the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the West Indies and Brazil.

They live in tropical low intertidal and in subtidal waters, usually on coral reef or under rocks.