[4] The species is found almost exclusively higher in the intertidal zone than the mussel Perumytilus, often codistributed with the confamilial barnacle Jehlius cirratus and Balanus flosculus.

Sutures between plates made up of poorly developed oblique folded laminae with membraneous basis.

Free-growing shellis are conic, crowded colonies become cylindrical, with plate sutures obscured.

[1]: 468  The interior of the tergum shows a tergal depressor muscle pit with overhang and no crests, or only relics thereof.

Notochthamalus scabrosus prefers exposed upper littoral habitats, and can be found on the South American coastline from Peru through Chile, Chiloe Archipelago, and Tierra del Fuego.