The family Triphoridae has many species of mostly small, narrow shells. Most species are characterized by being normally sinistral in construction; that is, the shell coils left-handed, rather than right-handed as is typical of nearly all other marine snails. Most live hidden under rocks feeding on sponges. We recognize more than 100 distinct species here in the Marshalls, but there are several others not figured here due to lack of photographs. Because of their small size, the lack of available identification references, and the difficulty of identifying species, many of these remain unidentified and some are probably as yet unnamed. Also, it is likely some of these are identified incorrectly. We continue to work on IDs, but would welcome corrections at uwkwaj@yahoo.com. (Click on a thumbnail for pages with larger images.)
