Colonies grow as encrusting sheets on hard substrates or as a small ‘cornflake’ on erect hydroids or Bryozoa (Cellaria species). The colonies are reddish-orange in colour. Autozooids are oval to hexagonal in shape, and are flat or slightly convex with distinct sutures separating them. The frontal shield of the autozooids is smooth and fine-grained. It is evenly punctured with fine pores. The primary orifice is orbicular; there is a pair of small condyles and a slender quadrate lyrula. There is an erect peristome around the orifice; this extends onto the surface of the ovicell in fertile colonies. There is a small suboral avicularium, this is directed transversely and is positioned within the gap in the peristome. The avicularia have an acute triangular shaped mandible. There are no oral spines in this species.
This species appears to be rare. Hincks (1862,1880) found a single specimen encrusting a shell from Start Bay, South Devon. Later Castric-Fey (1971) recorded it in Brittany. Occasional colonies have been found in Northumberland (Moore,1973) and east of Lundy (Hayward, 1977). It has been recorded as far south as the Straits of Gibraltar (Lopez de la Cuadra & Garcia-Gomez, 1993).
This species has been found intertidally and down to 50m depth, encrusting both hard substrates and erect hydroids and Bryozoa.
Ovicells are prominent, broader than long with the frontal surface perforated by numerous small round pores.