Clavus Montfort, 1810

Kilburn, Richard N., Fedosov, Alexander & Kantor, Yuri, 2014, The shallow-water New Caledonia Drilliidae of genus Clavus Montfort, 1810 (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Conoidea), Zootaxa 3818 (1), pp. 1-69 : 5-6

Genus Clavus Montfort, 1810

Type species (o.d.): Clavus flammulatus Montfort, 1810 .

Synonym: Tylotiella Habe, 1958 , type species (o.d.): Drillia subobliquata E. A. Smith, 1879 , new synonym.

See Powell (1966: 70) for other synonyms.

Diagnosis. Shell claviform, adult length 6–45 mm, often thick, base truncate, not strongly slanted to right, with short, wide, shallowly notched siphonal canal. Inner lip with a heavy parietal pad, constricting opening to the shallow to deep, U-shaped anal sinus, but not rendering it spout-like; outer lip with a distinct stromboid notch. Sculpture of axial ribs or peripheral nodules, spiral sculpture only on base of last whorl or absent. Protoconch domed to papilliform, of approximately two (rarely three) smooth whorls. Operculum oblanceolate, with terminal nucleus.

Radula drilliine, central plate small, unicuspidate (sometimes with tiny side-cusps), laterals arched, pectinate, marginals somewhat awl-shaped, with weak blade and accessory limb.

Note. Tylotiella has been given full subgeneric or generic status by most authors (e.g. Powell 1966; Kilburn 1988; Poppe 2008), to include narrower species with a higher spire than in Clavus s.s., and axial ribs that extend over whole whorl height, and form neither spines nor angles. However, intermediate character states blur the dividing line, and we now prefer to regard Tylotiella as a synonym of Clavus .