10mm. Solid, dull, elongate-conical, of about 5 whorls, with pointed apex, deep sutures and flattened base; aperture lirate, 1 or 2 denticles on columella; no umbilicus. Whorls sharply keeled, almost frilled, with flattened lines above and below keel; base spirally ribbed with rows of pits between ribs. White. Habitat: offshore and beached.

Elevated-trochiform to turriculate (L/D=l. 10-1.65); apical angle 42-63°; teleoconch of up to 8 whorls; whorls flat-sided and periphery angular, marked by strong, stellate, keel-like spiral cord, below which is a distinct supra-sutural sulcus. First teleoconch whorl rounded and sculptured only with close-set, curved, axial pliculae (±35); weak spiral cords develop toward end of second whorl; supra-sutural cord rapidly strengthening during third and subsequent whorls, and developing characteristic squamose, stellate projections; projections becoming fewer and larger with growth (±15 on last adult whorl); uppermost cord also strengthens, but to a lesser extent and becomes coronated by apically orientated, scale-like granules; these 1.5-2 times as numerous as peripheral projections; interval between peripheral cord/keel and abapical suture progressively deeper and more channelled with growth; development of remaining spirals between adapical suture and periphery variable, sometimes distinct, sometimes obsolete; axial sculpture becoming less obvious with growth; apical whorls (not first) somewhat cancellate, becoming more foveolate with elongate D-shaped pits on later whorls; pliculae in supra-sutural sulcus usually stronger and less close-set than those above peripheral keel. Base with 4 well-defined spiral cords and a fifth adjacent to columella; outermost cord strongest and frequently set with scale-like granules, in large specimens the other basal cords may also be somewhat granular; umbilicus closed. Peristome oblique; aperture D-shaped; columella more or less straight, a single weak tooth or rounded bulge present at its base in mature specimens; outer lip strongly notched at ends of peripheral and basal cords, particularly in subadults; interior of outer lip weakly thickened with in-running ridges at maturity, but most local material somewhat subadult in this respect; interior of aperture nacreous, angled beneath peripheral cord. Microsculpture: Initial whorls somewhat worn in all available material, but evidently lacking vermiform spiral microsculpture; later whorls with distinct scratchlike microsculpture. Protoconch : Apex missing or heavily encrusted in most specimens; protoconch remaining only in some juveniles and rather worn even in these; translucent white; diameter ca 260 µm; moderately exsert; terminal lip roundly angled between mid-whorl and apical suture; superficial sculpture eroded in all available material. Colour: Shell milky-white, fresh specimens with a cream to dirty buff intritacalx deposit, often with broad, dark greyish axial bands, particularly in juveniles. Many spe¬cimens with heavy, whitish or pinkish coralline encrustation. Dimensions: Largest specimen (holotype of Tectaria armata), length 15.5 mm. Southeast African specimens develop mature apertural features at a smaller size than those from the north-western Indian Ocean and Red Sea, and never attain such a large size (largest southern African specimen, length 9.6 mm). Operculum: Initially tightly multispiral, but whorls broadening with growth and becoming more openly multispiral, although somewhat less so than in P angulifera and P. konos.

A characteristic species though somewhat variable in size and shell proportions. The only local species with which it might be confused is P konos, but that species is smaller, never has such strongly developed peripheral projections, has weaker basal cords and more widely spaced axial pliculae on the apical whorls. Turcica (Perrinia) morrisoni Ladd, 1966 from the Marshall Islands, is smaller, less elevated and has much more obvious dentition inside the outer lip. Tomlin (1927) followed by Lamy (1938) synonymised Tectaria armata Issel, 1869 from the Red Sea, with the present species. The figure of the holotype here provided (Fig. 58F) indicates that this was fully justified. Tomlin (1927) also questioned the validity of the original Cumingian locality data, China Seas. This is a notoriously vague locality which should be rejected in view of the known inaccuracy of the provenance attached to much Cuming material. With the exception of one unconfirmed record from the Philippines (Hidalgo 1904-05), the species has been recorded subsequently only from the western Indian Ocean. I here emend the type locality to be the Gulf of Suez.

Distribution and habitat: Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Arabian Sea, Red Sea, Suez Canal and East Africa south to the KwaZulu-Natal south coast (Scottburgh area); living material collected from -18-50 m in South Africa, but probably also occurring in shallower water in truly tropical areas; available data on habitat preferences is inconclusive. A record from Zambaies in the Philippines (Hidalgo 1904-05) requires confirmation.