« It was already discovered by Forskål in the Persian Gulf and our specimens correspond to the description given by this author (Descript. Animal. etc. p.33. num.84) and to that of Chemnitz who gave a mediocre figure. These conchigliologists considered it as a variety of the Trochus magus, in which they were followed by Gmelin; but for many characters it differs from that species. The whorls are contiguous and only divided by a more or less deep suture; they have four rows of tubercles, the upper and lower ones provided with much larger knots than in the other two intermediates. The umbilicus is very wide, and all open on the base, when in the Trochus magus it is in that place circumscribed by a wall. The colour of the shell is rosy and dirty. » – G. Brocchi: “Catalogo di una seria di conchiglie raccolte presso la costa africana del golfo Arabico dal sig. G. Forni”, Biblioteca Italiana vol. XXIV, Milano 1821, p.223.

Jonas, in Zeitschrift für Malakozoologie jahrgang 1846 (Cassel), finds four variants, amongs which is the variant α pictured above: shell whitish, adorned with reddish-pinkish flammules. Specimen from northern Red Sea, found under coral in shallow water, Gulf of Aqaba, Sinai side. 31mm.