Shell moderately large, solid, brown, with numerous flat-sided whorls, and sculptured with spiral cords and axial ribs; aperture ovate, outer lip sweeping in arc to join moderately-developed anterior canal, frequently forming complete peristome. Columella with paired internal plaits; interna! palatal teeth opposite varices. Operculum corneous, round, multispiral with central nucleus. Mantle edge at inhalant siphon with pitlike light-sensory organ. Snout broad, muscular, with large buccal mass. Anterior pedal mucous gland opening slitlike, extending halfway down sides of sole. Radula taenioglossate; rachidian tooth rectangular with large central cusp; outer marginal tooth with wide lateral lamella. Stomach elongate, with gastric shield, and long style sac. Right side of foot in females with large, complex ovipositor. Pallial oviducts with medial fusion. Nervous system epiathroid, zygoneurous. Spermatophores crescentic, having transverse ridges. Eggs deposited in coiled gelatinous ribbons.

The genus Terebralia, sensu stricto, can be traced with relative certainty to the Early Miocene. Terebralia bidentata (Defrance in Grateloup, 1832), from that epoch, differs little in shell morphology from Recent Terebralia species. Cossmann (1906:126) cited the genus from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian), but the fossils from that period are at best equivocal, and it is unlikely that they belong to Terebralia as now understood. The genus was common in the Tethys Sea, from which it spread into the tropical Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Oceans. According to Woodring (1959:178), Terebralia species were widely distributed in Tertiary seas until about the end of the Miocene, but are today restricted to the tropical Indo-West-Pacific Oceans. There are several well-authenticated American Miocene species from the Caribbean region, such as Terebralia dentilabris (Gabb, 1873) (see Hoerle, 1972:20-21, pi. 1, figs. 9-11). Although many fossil species have been correctly attributed to Terebralia, numerous others must be removed from this genus. For example, K. Martin (1916) described seven species from the Upper Miocene of Java, none of which should be allocated to this genus, inasmuch as they are more like cerithiids or batillariids. A large number of fossils that appear to be true Terebralia species were described from the Late Miocene of Piemont, Italy, by Sacco (1895), and numerous typical Terebralia taxa have been described from Neogene formations of Southeast Asia. The numerous described Tertiary species have not been critically reviewed. Of the three living species, Terebralia palustris and Terebralia sulcata have fossil records going back to the Miocene (see species accounts in this paper for details).