Type locality: "The Coast of Java and New Holland" (Australia). Range: Southern coast of Australia.
Two geographical types may be distinguished, with a gradual variation that precludes any subspecific rank:
a) The typical form is dominant along the east part of the range from Esperance (Western Australia) to Portland (Victoria) and King Island (Bass Strait).
b) The form called grangeri (G. B. Sowerby III, 1900) is found between Flinders Bay and Esperance (SW Western Australia).
Habitat: On sand bars in shallow water, from the intertidal zone down to 20 m.

Description: This solid shell, measuring up to 55 mm long, presents a strong tendency towards local variation, which is confirmed by its large and paucispiral protoconch (about 2 mm in diameter) for the shell size, showing a poor potential of diffusion. Two main variants, different by the shape and the sculpture, share unequally the southern shore:
- The typical eastern form, mitraeformis s.s.
Elongate fusiform, with a high spire. Protoconch smooth, brown coloured with the half first whorl white. Teleoconch of six slighty convex whorls with an indented suture. Sculpture of well formed axial ribs, 16-19 on the penultimate whorl, 19-21 on the last one, crossed on the anterior tip by solid spiral cords. Aperture elliptical measuring 0. 60 of the total length. Outer lip thickened forming a strong varix externally. Columella almost straight.
- The western form, mitraeformis forma grangeri.
Ovate stocky with a short spire and a swollen body whorl. Protoconch similar to the type. Teleoconch of five and a half very convex whorls with a deep suture. Sculpture of 24 or more faint axial ribs which rapidly disappears after the shoulder of the body whorl. Anterior spiral cords very faint. Aperture measuring more than 0.70 of the total length. Outer lip moderately thickened, slighty expanded anteriorly. Columella arched.
Both forms bear three solid columellar plaits, followed adapically by small, very thin folds covering the entire length of the columella. Siphonal notch deep and narrow.
Background colour beige, with a complex pattern of interrupted spiral lines grouped into bundles which outline 6-10 light bands. Three spiral rows of irregular pink, brown or black markings on the body whorl, with in some specimens a well defined median band of the same colour. Animal: Foot and head are yellowish, marbled with patches of numerous small brown dots, the biggest on the edge of the foot.

TYPE: The questionable holotype, more probably a paratype, is deposited in the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, Geneva, No. 1103.38.2. TYPE LOCALITY: "The coasts of Java and New Holland." Several more specific locations mentioned by Angas (1864) are Spencer Gulf and Gulf St. Vincent, etc., Australia. RANGE: From Portland, Victoria, westward to Albany, south Western Australia, Australia - a coastal distance of approximately 1700 miles. HABITAT: On exposed sand bars at low tide to depths of about 10 fathoms. DIMENSIONS: Adult specimens are 29 to 55 mm in length. SHELL DESCRIPTION: Shell is variable in size, color, and form. It is of medium size for the genus, rather light in weight, and fusiform, with a high to moderately high, atten- uated spire; the apex is blunt. Protoconch is wine or flesh colored, globose, of one and a half smooth whorls. Teleoconch has about five and a quarter gently convex and heavily sculptured whorls. Suture is indented. Sculpture consists of numerous narrow axial ribs extending from suture to suture on all whorls. There are 17 such ribs on the penultimate whorl of a shell 54.5 mm in length. No spiral sculpture is present. Aperture is semiovate, typically about five-eighths the total length of the shell. Outer lip is thickened externally by a wide, low ridge bordering the aperture. Siphonal notch is narrow and rather shallow; fasciole weak and ill-defined. Columella is flesh colored and concave. It has three strong anterior teeth, followed by numerous weak lirae covering eight tenths of the columella where they join a posterior, raised toothlike projection. Base color is yellowish-cream, overlaid with chocolate spots and blotches. Interrupted spiral lines of the same color are scattered over the entire surface but appear more often on two pale revolving zones encircling the adult body whorl. A horny operculum is present. ANIMAL AND RADULA: According to Cotton (1949), the animal has a wide, expanded foot. It is dark cream and is overlaid with many violet spots. The radular ribbon is uniserial and consists of 52 tricuspid teeth (Cooke, 1922) (see Figure 4). REMARKS: Lyria mitraeformis, a very common species, seems most closely related to Lyria delessertiana (Petit de la Saussaye, 1842) but generally differs by having a less acum inated spire, broader and fewer axial ribs, and weaker columellar plaits. The small, posterior, columellar toothlike projection is absent in delessertiana. Populations of mitraeformis from different localitica, as well as from different depths, vary considerably in color and shape. In the vicinity of Albany, south Western Australia, there is a very globose population variant with a short spire. It was named Voluta (Lyria) grangeri by Sowerby III in 1900. At one time we thought this name represented a valid species (Weaver and duPont, 1968). Recently, with the help of Mrs. Elsie North, of Albany, we were able to look at many population variants collected in that area which either looked like grangeri or were inter mediate between grangeri and mitraeformis. We further learned from her that the type locality information in our 1968 article in The Veliger was in error and that grangeri does not come from Port Hedland, central Western Australia, but from the Albany area. As a result of this information, we consider grangeri to be a population variant at the western end of the range of mitraeformis; we have thus relegated it to the synonymy of that species.