The shells are imperforate, small, seldom reaching 8 mm., rounded-ovate in outline and sculptured with incised spiral grooves. The whorls are few and the last one large. The aperture is constricted by the three plicae on the parietal wall or inner lip and the single, ridgelike tooth on the inner side of the palatal lip. Coloration ranges from yellowish brown to dark chocolate-brown. The foot is divided by a transverse groove. When the posterior portion is fixed the anterior part is extended forward and then the posterior part brought forward, thus allowing the animal to make short and rather rapid steps.

Type species, Pedipes afra Gmelin ( = P. pedipes Bruguiere), subsequent designation, Gray 1847.

Shell imperforate, oval-subglobose, solid, spirally striate, whorls few, the last very large; aperture much contracted by teeth; columellar lip with usually three dentiform plications, of which the posterior one is largest and spiral; outer lip sharp, callous or dentate within.
TYPE. Pedipes afer Gmelin.
DISTRIBUTION. Red Sea, Mauritius, West Africa, New Caledonia, Panama, Lower California, California. Fossil: Eocene, Paris basin.

Generally a colony consists of individuals of similar size; that is, all are the same age. This indicates a common origin, perhaps from a single individual or at least only a few individuals of the same age derived from a single source. This would naturally influence the describer who had such a series of specimens available for study. The assumption would be, owing to the uniformity of the individuals, that he was dealing with a "species'" rather than a growth stage in the development of a species.
Variation is also exhibited in the size of the adult, with many examples in a single lot from one locality appearing to be fully adult and having all of the aperture dentition of other specimens two and three times their size. These mixed colonies may well represent two or more introductions from different populations. A new colony may become established by flotsam upon which egg masses or young from more than one population manage to arrive in one place.