Phalium areola, common name the checkerboard bonnet, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the subfamily Cassinae, within the family Cassidae the helmet and bonnet shells.

[1] This species occurs in the Indian Ocean along Madagascar, the Mascarene Basin, Tanzania and off the southern African coast from KwaZulu-Natal and Mozambique.

[3] These medium-sized shells are oval and acuminate, with a rather narrow mouth, the outer lip folded back and internally denticulate.

Shoulder are not angulate nor plicate and the anterior prickles on outer lip obsolete.

The surface of the shell is white with five series of large squarish red-brown spots (hence the common name).