It has a rounded head and a firm, cylindrical body, gradually decreasing in diameter to a bluntly pointed tail.

The colouring is distinctive, being bright red, reddish-brown or dark brown with white or yellowish lines along the mid-dorsal, lateral and mid-ventral surfaces, and white rings girdling the body; the front three rings are widely spaced while the hinder ones are more closely packed together.

This worm is similar in appearance to Tubulanus annulatus, but that species lacks the white line along the ventral surface.

Tubulanus superbus is often surrounded by a mucoid sheath to which sand and other fragments adhere.

[3][4] A predator, scavenger and omnivore,[1] T. superbus glides by cilliary action over the seabed on a trail of slime.