Like other whelks they have a siphonal notch at the bottom of the aperture. They can have smooth or knobbed whorls and may or may not have lines. They are white, yellow, brown, or purple in colour.

They are common on sheltered to open coastlines, from mid to low tide zones. Found in the intertidal to subtidal down to depths of 100m.

They are predators and eat other molluscs by drilling through the shell with its radula (toothed tongue) and acid saliva.

They are hermaphrodites and in the early spring lay several honeycomb shaped egg cases, each case containing several hundred larvae.

http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz