Shell ovate-fusiform, rather thin and light.Colour pale buff. Whorls six, including a smooth protoconch of a whorl and a half, spire gradate. Sculpture: perpendicular ribs widely spaced, about seventeen on the last whorl, diminishing and alternating in ascent from whorl to whorl, knotted at the shoulder and fading at the base. Spirals occur as six prominent cords on the snout, above which a dozen threads become fainter as they ascend, traverse the interstices but not the ribs ; about six of these ascend the spire. Aperture pyriform, lip simple. Columella with four well developed, spaced, oblique plaits. Length, 9,5: breadth, 4 mm. This is the form mentioned in the Thetis Report, as a variety of Mitra tasmanica Ten.Woods. On reconsidering a larger series, I now conclude that the northern shell is an independent species, readily separable by its sharp shoulder from the real M. tasmanica, which does not extend to New South Wales.