Typhlodaphne Powell 1951

“Genus Typhlodaphne n.g.
Type : Bela purissima Strebel, 1908

The relationships of this genus are puzzling. It has a bluntly rounded, smooth, paucispiral protoconch conch of two whorls, with an asymmetrical nucleus, a type found in any of the subfamilies. The sinus is most like that of Daphnella in being subsutural, steeply descending and then produced forward at an angle to meet the arcuately produced outer lip, but the presence of an operculum is foreign to the Daphnellinae. The dentition consists of paired marginals only, of the awl-shaped Conid type, not the hilted dagger form, characteristic of the 'Bela' complex, but very similar to those of Phenatoma (Clavinae).

In several respects, shape, sinus and dentition, Typhlodaphne closely resembles Typhlosyrinx vepallida Martens, 1903, from 1840 m. in the Gulf of Aden, but that genus lacks an operculum and has a globular initial whorl to its smooth, paucispiral protoconch.

Since the only important difference between Typhlodaphne and Typhlosyrinx is the presence of an operculum in the former and its absence in the latter, I feel that the placing of a high taxonimic value upon the presence or absence of an operculum would sever what appears to be rather close relationship. Admittedly one of the criteria used in the segregation of the Mangeliinae and the Daphnellinae is the absence of an operculum, but in the case of Typhlodaphne the operculum is of vestigial size and may well reflect an archaic condition just as some members of the Clavinae preserve the prototypic complete dental formula of central, lateral and marginal teeth.

Both Typhlodaphne and Typhlosyrinx are here referred to the Daphnellinae mainly on the evidence of the sinus, which is of a type seemingly excusive to that subfamily.”

(Powell, 1951: 174)

Typhlodaphne is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Borsoniidae.