Description.- Shell claviform (b/l 0.34, a/1 0.34), with an acute, almost orthoconoid spire, and moderately short, truncate, not or slightly oblique base; suture shallow; teleconch whorls about 9; whorls convex, with a deep, evenly concave subsutural region, periphery initially submedian, on later whorls median, forming a distinct angle below subsutural concavity; left side of base of body whorl shallowly to strongly concave, fasci-ole not developed, no false umbilicus. Aperture oblong, greatest width at about posterior third, labium slightly flattened medially, columella slightly convex; siphonal canal wide, short, termination very shallowly concave; inner lip with a moderately thin callus, foring a strong tubercle in posterior angle of aperture, constricting anal sinus, outer edge of callus not free on columella. Outer lip thin, gently curved in side-view, with deep strom-boid notch (anterior to which the lip forms a feeble denticle) and rather deep, rounded, U-shaped anal sinus, directed somewhat adapically. Sculptured by strong but largely peripheral axial ribs and 5-6 narrow, angular, wide-set spiral ridges on rostrum; microscopic collabral and even finer spiral striae. Axial ribs evanescing at lower edge of subsutural concavity, on last whorl extending weakly onto base, terminating in a very weak, irregular angle or tubercle, not vermiculate; ribs strongly opisthocline, almost straight, in t/s sharply angular, more or less narrower than intervals; 13-14 on penultimate whorl. Terminal varix well behind lip, thick, composed of finer ribs, moderately high, trailing side concave.
Glossy, medium- to yellowish-brown with a pale brown peripheral band, its lower edge with darker brown spots or dashes, its upper edge with a fine, indistinct, broken line, subsutural concavity and base pale yellowish-brown; feeble basal tubercles white; aperture and callus of inner lip pale brownish.
Protoconch unknown.

Gulf of Aqaba, northern Red Sea.

In the two type specimens of Claims infuscatus the apical whorls are worn, so that protoconch and initial teleoconch characters are unknown. Nevertheless, adult characters are sufficiently diagnostic for the recognition of a new species. Clavus (Tilotiella) infuscatus spec. nov. resembles a number of Indo-Pacific species, mostly unnamed, but often misidentified as Clavus fulvus (Hinds, 1843). Unfortunately, no types of Clavatula fulva are extant amongst the Belcher material in the BMNH. Moreover, if the type figure (Hinds, 1844: pi. 7 fig. 13) is magnified (fig. 7), it is seen to possess a peripher¬al row of nodules, a subsutural series of smaller tubercules, and on the base of its last whorl a fine, granose-cancellate sculpture. It appears that C. fulva is a nomen dubium, not within the genus Clavus, but in the very poorly studied genus Paradrillia Makiyama, 1940.
Claims infuscatus spec. nov. belongs to a group of Tylotiella species with a broad white supra-peripheral band and spiral sculpture that is restricted to the rostrum. This complex includes Clavus papilio (Kilburn, 1988), C. powelli Kay, 1979, C isibopho (Kilburn, 1988), C jucumius (E.A. Smith, 1888), and C. humilis (E.A. Smith, 1879). In all of these species the axial ribs reach the suture, unlike C. infuscatus spec. nov.