The color is pale (from white to dirty beige), but the dorsum seems transparent, often greenish grey with yellowish margins, with sometimes darker transverse stripes and a delicate yellow ring.

It is present in numerous regions, including East and South Africa, Madagascar, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, Maldives, eastern Polynesia, Galapagos, Clipperton and Cocos islands off Central America, southern Japan, Midway and Hawaii, and northern New South Wales and Lord Howe Island.

[3] This cowrie lives in intertidal rocky areas and shallow tide pools among sea weed, coral remains, and empty bivalve shells.

Shells of this cowrie were commonly used as a medium of exchange[3] in many areas of Africa, Asia and the Pacific islands until the late 19th century.

[3] In the State of Kerala, in India, special money cowrie shells (which are known in Malayalam as കവിടി Kavidi) are used for divination as part of Hindu astrology, as Prashnam.