Shell tubular, cylindrical, irregularly twisted; apex subspiral. Whorls with, on the dorsal side, a longitudinal fissure modified into a series of holes extending from the apex to the mouth. Aperture circular; operculum horny, cylindrical.
TYPE SPECIES Serpula anguina Linne, 1758.
There has been some confusion as to whether Siliquaria or Tenagodus Guettard, 1770, is the name to be used for the type genus of this family, but in a personal communication Dr John Morton advises the continued use of Siliquaria for the present.