Shell claviform with obliquely truncate base and narrow false-umbilicus, spire high with papilliform apex; suture shallow, subsutural cord tumid and prominent, clasping high up preceding whorl; shoulder sulcus median, rendering whorls concave; aperture narrow, strongly channelled or even spout-like pos-teriorly, anal sinus shallow; axial ribs short (shoulder to base) but strong, 11-16, spiral striae fine to feeble; uniform pale orange-yellow, or brown with white subsutural cord and base; attains at least 36 mm.
Description: Shell claviform (breadth/length 0,37-0,40) with a broad, obliquely truncate base and a high spire (aperture/total length 0,36-0,42), apex papilliform; suture rising very high up the preceding whorl, early whorls flat-sided, later ones strongly concave; aperture long and relatively narrow, greatest width posterior to middle, posterior end pinched in, forming a distinct channel, sometimes spout-like in adults; siphonal canal not distinctly indented; rostrum with a shallow, rather rimate false-umbilicus; labium with a fairly thick callus, but no parietal tubercle; labrum strongly arched in side view with a slight stromboid notch and shallow, gently curved anal sinus. Subsutural cord very strongly tumid and subequal in width to rest of whorl, so that the shoulder sulcus is median; floor of sulcus flattened or even slightly convex. Periphery of body whorls slightly angular, with a series of narrow, weak to strong, opisthocline ribs which terminate abruptly at border of shoulder sulcus (showing above suture on spire as a series of low nodules, somewhat crenulating the overlying subsutural cord), and end almost as abruptly on base of rostrum; 11-16 ribs on penultimate whorl; axial sculpture may only develop from about 4th teleoconch whorl, or may be initiated from first whorl as irregular, arcuate, suture-to-suture riblets. Coarse growth-lines (sometimes rather pliculate) occur overall, as well as fine spiral striae, which may be faint to absent in places; rostrum with fine spiral lirae. Colour: Subsutural cord and upper half of shoulder sulcus, as well as rostrum, yellowish-white, contrasting with a median zone of light yellowish-brown to moderate brown, crests of ribs paler, shoulder sulcus sometimes darker than periphery; external colour tinting aperture; labium white. Beach shells uniform light orange-yellow with white rostrum. Periostracum inconspicuous. Protoconch similar to T. tumida, maximum diameter 2,0-2,2 mm. Dimensions: 35 X 12,8 mm; 29,5 x 11,7 mm; attains at least 36,6 mm. Operculum and radula unknown.

Shell robust, fusiform. Whorls sloping from the summit and the periphery to a depressed line midway between the sutures. The portion posterior to the median line is smooth excepting the strongly retractive lines of growth and spiral striations. The portion anterior to it is marked by distant, low, broad, feebly developed axial ribs, which appear as nodules above the sulcus. On this part the incremental lines are decidedly protractive. Sutures well marked. Posterior portion of base well rounded, anterior part produced rendering the left outline of the whorl concave, marked by feeble extensions of the ribs which disappear shortly after passing over the periphery. Entire surface of spire and base marked by very fine, closely spaced wavy spiral striations. Aperture of irregular outline; posterior angle . acute; sinus moderately deep, in the middle between the periphery and summit; columella stout, somewhat sinuous and twisted, covered by a thin callus, which also extends over the parietal wall. Color uniformly cream yellow. In some of the young specimens the space between the sulcus and summit and tip of base are white, the rest light brown.
The type and one other individual, Cat. No. 1S6992, U.S.N.M., come from Port Alfred (Coll. No. 524). The type has lost its early whorls, the seven remaining measure: Length, 29.5 mm.; diameter, 11.6 mm. Cat. No. 1S6997, U.S.N.M., contains three young individuals from the same locality (Coll. No. 529).

South-Africa: Continental shelf of Transkei and eastern Cape, in about 32-165 m; worn shells very occasionally washed up on shore.