The shell is brown, with a tall evenly tapered spire, ornamented with 3 strong cords. The operculum ("door") is horny and circular.

The habitat in New Zealand is from the low intertidal to about 200 m, on fine silts, muds, and sandy, gravelly or shelly substrates. In Australia it lives on similar substrates, and can reach densities of up to 600 individuals per square metre.

It is a suspension feeder, laying in a stationary position on, or partly buried in, the substrate, filtering suspended organic material from the water drawn across its gills.

The species has separate sexes, in contrast to some turritellids which are protandrous hermaphrodites. Sperm released by the male is taken up by females in the inhalant water flow. Fertilised eggs are deposited into egg capsules held as a conspicuous yellow mass in the female mantle cavity. Eggs develop within the egg capsules to trochophore larvae and then veligers while still held in the female. Development after this stage is uncertain, but it appears that the veligers (larvae) are released for a short planktonic period before settling on the substrate. Endemic to NZ. This species was probably introduced into Tasmania in the 1930s with oysters for farming from New Zealand. It has subsequently been found in Sydney Harbour.

http://seashellsofnsw.org.au/Turritellidae/Pages/Maoricolpus_roseus.htm accessed 13/02/14 Coastal Marine Inverts Vol 1