Shell thin, fusiform, very finely spirally striated, with a short, tumid body-whorl, a high, small, scalar, small-pointed, round-whorled, shallow-sutured spire, a very oblique and scarcely conical base, and a smallish very one-sided square-fronted snout. Sculpture: Longitudinals: there are very slight unequal lines of growth; and on the lower part of the whorls very slight remote oblique riblets, which entirely disappear on the last whorl. Spirals: fine, very regular and beautiful, sharp, close-set scratchings cover the whole surface. Below the suture a shallow concave trench marks the line of the old sinus; the lower edge of this broad furrow is defined by a slight thread. Colour white. Spire rather high, conical, scalar. Apex small, ending in a flattish, rounded, slightly raised point. Whorls 6, of regular, but rather rapid increase, rounded, without any contraction below; above, each laps up rather high and thinly on the whorl above; below this they at once swell out tumidly, but hollowed by a slight concave furrow, from which results the scalar rise of the spire; the last is tumid, but obliquely contracted on the base, and ends in a small square-fronted snout. Suture very slight and not in the least impressed, but well defined by the furrow below. Mouth large, oval, pointed above, and truncate below at the front of the very short canal. Outer lip a little patulous; in its arch it is a little gibbous above; the curve of the edge is nearly semicircular, with a high prominent shoulder, between which and close up to the body lies the deep, funnel-shaped, rounded sinus. Inner lip: a thin narrow glaze crosses the body and advances along the pillar, on which it rather early comes to an end, being cut off by the oblique, curved, and thin edge which runs out to the point of the shell; this glaze is defined by a small furrow on its outer margin. The pillar is rather long and straight. H. 0.4 inch; B. 0.2 inch; Penultimate whorl, height 0.07 inch. Mouth, height 0.23 inch; breadth 0.11 inch

Compared with T. corpulenta Watson this is a smaller, squatter shell, with a smaller and more scalar spire, whose outlines, too, are more concave; the body-whorl is much shorter and more tumid, and the base is much more contracted. From Xanthodaphnella translúcida Watson it differs still more in these particulars. From both in its sculpture it is markedly distinct.

New Zealand. Antarctic. Royal Sound, Kerguelen.