[citation needed] The lettered olive typically lives in near-shore waters, on shallow sand flats near inlets.

The aperture is narrow and extending almost the length of shell, continuing around the bottom and ending in a notch on the other side.

The shell coloration can vary from cream to a greyish exterior with reddish-brown zigzag markings.

[7] Its presence is sometimes detected at very low tides by the trails it leaves when it crawls below the surface on semi-exposed sand flats.

[7] Females lay floating, round egg capsules that are often found in beach drift.