Shell large, 60-156 mm., elongate-fusiform, with a tall spire and a long straight unnotched anterior canal. Protoconch paucispiral, small, blunt and smooth. Sinus deep and narrow, on a spiral rib immediately above the peripheral carina. Colour pattern usually of spots, tessellations or axial flames in reddish or purplish brown on a pale ground. Operculum leaf-shaped, with a terminal nucleus. Radula of wishbone-shaped marginals only, the basal limbs bridged by a flat plate (babylonia and crispa). Recent: tropical Indo-Pacific, Pliocene of Japan and India, and Miocene of Victoria, Australia.

Characterised by the position of the anal sinus on a ridge (the shoulder cord) above the peripheral cord, and by the blunt, paucispiral protoconch. Although said to be small and smooth by Powell (1966), the protoconch on the one hand may be large and almost bulbous in subtropical species (orthopleura, ruthae), and on the other may develop feeble to strong brephic axials (ambages, orthopleura, nadaensis Azuma, 1973 and brevicanalis (Kuroda & Oyama, 1971)).
The status of the subgenus Annulaturris Powell, 1966, is difficult to judge. As stated by its author, the presence of a rachidian may or may not be significant, although the marginal plates of the type species, amicta (E. A. Smith, 1877), do indeed differ from those of the type species of Turris s.s. However, the shell characters given by Powell apply to the type species and to T. orthopleura (herein), but not to the second species, annulata (Reeve, 1843), associated with Annulaturris by its describer. The radula of T. ruthae, described below, similarly possesses a rachidian, while its marginals are equally distinctive in their characters. It is felt that little is to be gained at this stage by the naming of possibly monotypic exceptions, when the fundamental pattern of dentition for the genus has still to be established.

Diagnosis: Shell medium-sized to large (40-185 mm), fusiform with high spire and long, unnotched siphonal canal. Protoconch normally multispiral, rarely paucispiral, bulbous; when multispiral, protoconch with up to five whorls, last whorls bearing arcuate, rather widely set ribs. Whorl profile rounded or obtusely angulate, with usually wide, flattened, gently convex or indistinctly angulate subsutural cord, sometimes bearing several subequal cordlets. Sinus cord above whorl periphery, distinct and normally bipartite. Peripheral cord usually strongest, sometimes slightly elevated and sharp, more commonly producing indistinct angulation on whorl periphery. Last adult whorl usually evenly convex or indistinctly shouldered. Aperture moderately wide, elongate, with long to very long, normally straight siphonal canal. Anal sinus U-shaped, parallelsided, deep and narrow. Outer aperture lip white inside often with fine lirae. Shell colour white or cream, usually with regular contrasting orange, brown or black blotches on spiral elements, sometimes with fine pattern of zigzag lines. Radula: marginal teeth wide, subtriangular with about equally developed major and accessory limbs; central formation weak, with short and blunt central cusp. Sometimes central for¬mation vestigial, with only central cusp discernible (7T chaldaea, T crispa),

Remarks: The species of the genus can be recognized by their generally large shells, with speckled pattern, and the narrow and deep, slit-like anal sinus situated above the whorl periphery. Polystira species may have similar shell proportions and whorl outline but differ from Turris in die position of anal sinus and, furthermore, they represent an East Pacific and Caribbean radiation, whereas Turris is confined to the Indo-West Pacific.
During the 19th century, the name Pleurotoma Lamarck, 1799 (type species Murex babylonius Linnaeus, 1758, by monotypy) was used for any 'turrid', with no less than 3,214 Recent and fossil nominal species originally established in Pleurotoma (Tucker, 2004). Throughout the 19th century, more 'turrid' genera were established, but Pleurotoma remained a wastebasket for slender 'turrids', with many subgenera remaining subsumed under Pleurotoma well into the 20th century. Then, early in the 20th century, a controversy raged as to whether Museum Boltenianum (1798) was to be regarded as a nomenclaturally available work, a view which had met with much resistance because this is the sales catalogue of the collection of J.E Bolten, of Hamburg. (It was also a very rare work, but a facsimile edition was made available in 1906 by two British scholars Davies Sherborn and E.R. Sykes.) Finally, the Museum Boltenianum was placed on the Offtcial List of Works Approved as Available for Zoological Nomenclature (Opinión 96, 1926) and its authorship attributed to Róding by Direction 48 (1956). Acceptance of Museum Boltenianum had the consequence of replacing, under the Principie of Priority, a number of well-known Lamarckian names, including Solarium Lamarck, 1799 (replaced by Architectonica Róding, 1798) or Scalaria Lamarck, 1801 (replaced by Epitonium Róding, 1798); this was also the case of Pleurotoma, an objective synonym of Turris. From then on, the ñame Turris became in use for over a century, and its authorship attributed to Róding (1798), until Dubois & Bour (2010) discovered that it had first been used by Batsch (1789) in a previously overlooked publication. Turris Batsch was made available by a description, but it did not include any nominal species. To maintain nomenclatural stability, Dubois & Bour under Art. 67.2.2 fixed Murex babylonius as type species of Turris Batsch, 1789, which thus became a sénior homonym and objective synonym of Turris Róding, 1798.

Distribution: Indo-West Pacific, from South and East Africa to the Red Sea, the northern Indian Ocean, as far east as the Marshall Islands, Fiji and Hawaii, and northwards to Japan; at depths of 2-400 m.