Description: Shell ovate-biconic (b/1 0,40-0,45, a/1 0,43-0,50), spire cyrtoconic with acute, non-papilliform apex, teleoconch whorls 4, gently convex with shallow suture, body whorl with moderately to strongly convex periphery, left side of base moderately concave. Aperture narrow, sinuous, rather parallel-sided, acute posteriorly; labial callus fairly thick, paries concave, posterior angle with a small nodule constricting anal sinus; columella tumid posteriorly, with a narrowly U-shaped median notch; labrum smooth inside or with 5-7 weak ridge-like denticles, and a large tubercle at level of columella/parietal junction; in side-view labrum is evenly and gently convex with a fairly deep, openly U-shaped anal sinus; labral edge fairly thin, but preceded by a broad varicoid thickening.
Sculpture of short axial ribs, crossed by thinner spiral lirae; interstices with microscopic axial striae. Axial ribs slightly opisthocline, rounded, slightly wider than intervals, obsolete on body whorl below parietal level; ribs commencing on later half of 1st whorl, 14-18 per whorl (sometimes 10), becoming feeble on back of body whorl; lip preceded by a series of dense growth plicules. Spiral lirae 3 on 1st whorl, granular; subsutural lira cut off by a progressively stronger furrow, to form a prominent, somewhat nodular cord on later whorls; the 2nd lira is cut off by a weaker furrow (which may not even incise axials), and 3rd lira divides once on 2nd whorl, and once or twice subsequently, so that ribs on penultimate whorl are crossed by a total of 3-5 lirae, plus the two subsutural ridges and sometimes a lira just showing above suture; base of body whorl with 13-18 spiral lirae, relatively flat-topped and subequal to their intervals, and becoming somewhat finer and closer towards anterior end. Protoconch acutely orthoconic, of 4 smooth, somewhat convex whorls; breadth 0,50-0,53 mm, height 0,48-0,55 mm (b/h 0,91-1,10). Colour somewhat variable; typically white with a large characteristically shaped moderate to brownish-orange blotch on dorsal surface of body whorl, usually with a series of oblong spots of that colour on alternate ribs from 2nd whorl onwards, and faint brown lines on alternate basal lirae; occasionally uniform pale orange-yellow with a white subsutural region; protoconch yellowish-white. Dimensions: 6,7 x 2,7 mm; 5,0 x 2,2 mm; 4,5 x 1,8 mm.

AS: Columbella (Seminella) Pacei sp. nov
C. testa parva, compacta, albida, anfractibus sex, arete longitudinaliter costulatis, costis spiraliter clathrato-liratis, ante-penultimo anfractu supra, juxta suturas, simul ac penultimo spiraliter et regulariter squarrose-maculatis, maculis late flavo-ochraceis, ultimo anfractu apud medium simili modo flavochraceo maculato, in pluribus speciminibus dorsaliter fulvo-suffuso, usque ad basim, apertura augusta, labro incrassato, intus laevi, columella planata.
Long. 4, Lat. 1,75 mill.
Minute, yet particularly beautiful. Whorls six, compact, clathrate, with close longitudinal riblets and revolving lirae. Just underneath the sutures the ante-penultimate and penultimate whorls are sparsely spotted with fulvous; in the last whorl the spots again occur towards the middle, but are contiguous to, and below joined with, one large dorsal effusion of the same colour. The mouth is narrow, lip thickened, simple. Several specimens. To Mr. S. Pace our thanks are due, he having given advice concerning the Columbellidas of this collection, and as a very slight return we would venture to associate his name with not the least elegant of that genus to which he is devoting so much laborious study.

Iredale (1916), who traced the complex synonymy of Anarithma metula (better known in the literature as Mitra [or Columbeiia) lachryma Reeve, 1845), did not include Columbella stepheni. Hervier (1899) claimed that stepheni was smaller than lachryma (5 mm against 6-9 mm), more ovate, with stronger, granulose spiral sculpture and axial ribs that evanesce on the back of the body whorl. Orr Maes (1967) said that stepheni differed from lachryma in its lower spire and dark peripheral spots. However, the holotype of C. metula agrees extremely well with syntypes of stepheni save in lacking spots. Both extremes occur in south-east Africa, and a specimen from Sodwana Bay (Figs 155-157) is intermediate in that its spots, conspicuous on the spire, become diffuse and merge with the ground colour on the body whorl. I cannot separate two species on these grounds. A series from Reunion Island, presented by J. Drivas, confirms the extreme variability of A. metula.
Several large (5-6,7 mm) examples from Zululand (Figs 158-160) are atypical in possessing only 10 strong axial ribs per whorl, and sometimes a slightly longer aperture than normal. Nevertheless in other respects they agree well with A, metula.

Range: New Caledonia to Mozambique and eastern Transkei.