It is found in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea where it burrows in soft sediment.

This species was first described in 1853 by the British naturalist Philip Henry Gosse as Ilyanthus mitchellii.

The column is pear-shaped with a rounded base, and is divided into a scapus, the main part of the column, and a scapulus, a smooth retractile region; the physa, or basal region, is able to adhere firmly to a hard surface but is not normally attached because the animal habitually burrows.

The scapus is generally reddish, orange or buff, the scapulus is grey, and the oral disc and tentacles are patterned in brown, cream and red.

[2] Mesacmaea mitchellii is native to the northeastern Atlantic Ocean where it occurs in the sublittoral zone around the coasts of Britain and Western Europe and in the Mediterranean Sea.