Synonym hemprichii Issel, 1869, who describes the shell as « solid, equivalve, very inequilateral, tumid, ovate, oblong, rounded anteriorly, lengthened posteriorly, attenuated, with the valves gaping. Externally it is yellowish white in colour and bears thin unequal longitudinal ribs (larger at the rear than on the front) intersected by transverse striae; internally it is smooth and dirty white in colour. The lunula is small and oval in shape; the umbos are rather prominent, obtuse and close; the margin is entire. Hinge made up, in the left valve, of three unequal and irregularly shaped teeth; in the right valve there are also three teeth, among which the most posterior is laminar, small and in an almost horizontal position. This shell is, like its congeners, extremely variable in the shape and character of the hinge. » – A. Issel: Malacologia del Mar Rosso. Ricerche zoologiche e paleontologiche, Pisa 1869, p.61-62.