Type species: Fusus ceramidus Dall, 1889a. Recent. Barbados, designated herein.

Diagnosis: Peristemiine gastropods with fusiform shells of small to medium size (adult lengths to 51.0 mm): whorls sculpted with moderate to strong axial ribs and less prominent spiral cords; sutures distinct, bordered anteriorly by prominent, dense band of lamellae; siphonal canals relatively short, slender, canted to left; aperture ovate, constricted anteriorly and posteriorly, with parietal shield bearing very weak, oblique columellar plicae and outer lip bearing internal lirae that are entire posteriorly but interrupted as beaded dots and dashes (sensu Vermeij and Snyder, 2006) anteriorly on mature specimens; radula of Latirus-type (see Cernohorsky. 1972:156-159 for examples of Latirus-type and Peristernia-type radulae).

Etymology: Lamellilatirus, masculine, is a compound word formed of lamella, Latin, the diminutive of lamina, or plate, in reference to the prominent subsutural lamellae of the shells, and the stem name Latirus, to acknowledge the place of the genus among the “Latirus-like" taxa.

Remarks: Lamellilatirus is distinguished from Fusinus, where the type species was previously placed, by its peristemiine rather than fusinine radula and by having faint but definite oblique columellar folds (noted by Bullock (1968: 60)); shells of Fusinus lack columellar folds. Its relatively light-weight shells bearing conspicuous subsutural axial lamellae and faint oblique columellar plicae distinguish Lamellilatirus from other Latirus-like genera, most of which have heavier shells with well-developed, near-perpendicular columellar plicae. Shells of some species of the Indo-west Pacific genus Fusolatirus resemble those of Lamellilatirus but differ by having a Peristernia-like radula (see Snyder and Bouchet for the radula of Fusolatirus).
Abbott (1974) incorrectly classified Fusinus ceramidus, the type species of Lamellilatirus, in the subgenus Barbarofusus Grabau and Shinier, 1909, which has been considered a subgenus or synonym of Fusinus or of Heilprinia Grabau. 1904. Shells of Barbarofusus lack columellar folds and subsutural lamellae, and their protoconchs are prominently ribbed on all whorls, whereas the protoconch of F. ceramidus is essentially smooth except for a few fine riblets near the junction with the teleoconch. Bullock (1968) and Sunderland and Sunderland (1995) proposed that Fusus ceramidus is more appropriately classified in Latirus, and Bullock (1968) proposed a manuscript name for a subgenus of Latirus with ceramidus as its type species. We chose not to validate that name because Bullock intended it collectively to represent several species that we do not believe represent a natural species-grouping.

Shell: small to medium size, fusiform, light-weight, with columellar folds faint or (usually) lacking and with abundant scale-like lamellae on sutural ramp. Radula: rachidian tooth subquadrate, longer than wide, with 3 forward-directed cusps, median cusp longest; lateral tooth wide, with single small cusp at medial edge, flanked by larger, mesially slanting saw-toothed cusps; much smaller cusp near lateral margin separated from others by wide gap (Lyons & Snyder 2008: 228, fig. 3a, after Bullock 1968).