BEU (1988: 90) proposed Personopsis to replace in Personidae the incorrect usage of the name Personella Conrad. 1865; Sassia (Personella) proved to be a subgenus of the ranellid Sassia (BEU, 1988: 85). "Personopsis" pusilla is referred above to the new genus Distorsomina. and all other species previously referred to Personopsis by BEU (1988: 90-91) are Cenozoic fossils, ranging in age from Paleocene to Pliocene. It is therefore of great interest to record here two species of Personopsis living in the waters of the New Caledonia-Coral Sea region. Both are rare, small species occurring in more than 300 m depth, so it is not surprising that only the intensive MNHN/ORSTOM deep-sea sampling programme has brought them to light. Specimens of an Atlantic deep-water species closely resembling P. grasi are also reported below.
Personopsis differs from the other genera of Personidae in its small size (to about 25 mm high, but most species reach less than 20 mm); its only slightly irregular coiling; its biconic shape with a moderately tall spire with straight-sided outlines, the last whorl weakly expanded to the left of the aperture (in conventional spire-upward orientation) to form a weakly defined, slightly concave sutural ramp and an evenly rounded periphery, and the base gradually contracting to a weakly defined neck and short, open, anterior siphonal canal directed weakly to the left and dorsally; its moderately expanded inner lip forming a thin parietal shield over part of the previous whorl, but much narrower than the shield of Distorsio: and its weakly trigonal aperture with a prominent, deep posterior notch margined by a sharply rounded adapical expansion of the outer lip. and with a markedly enlarged third nodule (from the adapical end) inside the outer lip, one or two prominent parietal ridges demarcating the posterior notch, and a row of abapically decreasing transverse ridges on the base of the columella. Personopsis is the most nearly similar to Distorsio of the smaller personid genera, and differs from Distorsio in its smaller size, its much less distorted coiling, its narrower parietal shield, its relatively tall spire and more gradually contracted base, and its basal columellar nodule row being situated directly on the columella rather than on the strongly elevated, hollow ridge protruding into the aperture in Distorsio.