The color pattern is whitish or light yellow, closely tessellated all over with blackish-olive or reddish-brown squarish spots.

The surface is shining and polished, with strong spiral grooves above, generally 4 to 6 on the body whorl.

The sutures are narrowly impressed, with a rather wide margin below them, which often shows a slight tendency to be tuberculate.

The base of the shell is smooth, tessellated around the irregularly convex, flesh-colored central callus.

In Japan, the snail is called kisago, and its shell was once used as pieces for ohajiki, a children's game similar to marbles.