« Until lately this ancient species, founded upon a well-executed drawing in Kämmerer (Conch. Cab. Rudolst. t. i), was omitted, or neglected, in our lists of sea-shells. Of late it has been cited as a synonym of the T. norvagicus of Spengler, a conclusion which my recent examination of a most magnificent group acquired by me at Cannes from the wreck of a submerged Italian ship does not confirm. It may, indeed, be a variety, yet with differences in tube, valves, and pallets so perceptible that the untrained eye (I mean as to shells) of a portrait-painter immediately indicated them. » – S. Hanley: “On the Teredo utriculus of Gmelin…”, Annals and magazine of natural history series 5, vol. XVI, London 1885, via BHL.

S. Hanley: « The more prominent features seem the peculiar thinness of the valves, whose swollen triangular area is so large as to occupy one half the entire length (hence the fang seems peculiarly short). »