Olivella lactea is a species of small sea snail, marine gastropod mollusk in the subfamily Olivellinae, in the family Olividae, the olives. Species in the genus Olivella are commonly called dwarf olives.
Original description: "Shell of medium size (length about 12 mm.), subovate, thin or of medium texture, with a rather high body-whorl and an elevated, evenly conic spire half the total length. Sutures linear, grooved, the edge of the whorl in front forming a narrow, slightly overhanging collar. Parietal callus extending weakly beyond the end of aperture about halfway to the suture, the pillar structure formed by a few small lirations which end sharply at the edge of the excavation of the pillar wall. Color is a leaden white except for a band of broken brown spots below the suture and another arranged at the edge of the fasciole, the fasciole itself white; the spire may be of uniform color or in some cases much darker approaching a blotched black. Radular ribbon like that of nivea but much smaller (a ribbon with about 30 rows of teeth has a length of 1.20 mm, the rachidian tooth about.18 mm. wide (longer diameter). The paired medial cusps of the rachidian tooth are more widely separated with smaller accessory ones between."[1]
The length of the shell varies between 8 mm and 13 mm.
It has been found off La Guajira along the northern Caribbean coast of Colombia.,[2] in the Gulf of Mexico and off the Lesser Antilles.
mm