The aperture is very small and the outer lip is thin.

The shell is sculptured with fine axial threads and irregular weak spiral grooves, and the area below the suture raised into a spiral band.

The color of the shell is cream with two rows of dark brown square blotches on the early whorls and three rows on the body whorl.

[3] This species can be found from the coast of East Africa and Madagascar to Eastern Polynesia, Japan, Hawaii, and Australia, at depth of 0 to 10 m.[3] Terebra subulata feeds on sand-dwelling Polychaeta and Enteropneusta.

The prey is stung with the snail's radula teeth and paralysed by a venom, which is toxic to annelids and nematodes, but harmless to vertebrates.