The name Latirus has been used as a catchall genus for a wide variety of fasciolariids and other gastropods, collectively ranging in age from the late Cretaceous to Recent. We agree with Woodring (1928) that Latirus comprises several distinct groups. We hereby restrict Latirus s.s. to a small group of Indo-West Pacific species characterized by low, rounded axial ribs, which on the last whorl connect two rows of nodes, one at the shoulder angulation, the other at the adapical end of the basal constriction. The outer lip has a more or less distinct subsutural sinus, and lacks a labral tooth; its inner side is (usually) ornamented by beaded lirae. Three or four columellar folds are usually present, but in L. gibbulus these are masked by a thick inner-lip callus. There is a tendency to form an umbilical slit. In L. amplustis (Dillwyn, 1817) lirae on the inner side of the outer lip are smooth. Species we assign to Latirus s.s. include Murex amplustre Dillwyn, 1817; Turbinella barclayi Reeve, 1847; Turbinella belcheri Reeve, 1847; Murex columbarium Gmelin, 1791; Murex gibbulus Gmelin, 1791; Turbinella picta Reeve, 1847; Murex polygonus Gmelin, 1791; and probably Latirus tigroides Kilburn, 1975. There are several available names which may be used to describe groups of species in Latirus s.l. and new generic names may as well need to be introduced.

The Latiri proper are mostly shells of a somewhat massive build, fusiform, whorls turreted, six to eight whorled, usually longitudinally ribbed or noduled, often smooth (L. nodatus) but more frequently transversely sulcated, filleted, or striated, canal very short (e.g. Rousi, brevicandatus, spadiceus, prismaticus), or produced and deeply umbilicated (infundibulum), very long and fusoid (lancea) mouth subtriangular, canal short, (ceratus) inner lip more or less with a toothlike projection (cingalatus and leucozonalis). The interior in some cases is finely coloured, with pale violet or pink (nodatus). This is more frequent, however, in the Peristerniinae, (e.g. Nassatula, violacea, whilst the mouth is yellow in the striata and crocea sections. The Peristerniinae are more like Nassae in outward appearance, with their short, sometimes slightly recurved beaks, while the Latiri, to sum up, often assimilate species of the genera Fasciolaria, Fusus, Mitra, Monoceros, Columbella and Murex.
The plaiting of the columella occurs as a strong family distinction, not only in this, but in several other leading families of Prosobranchiate gasteropods: e.g., Mitra, Marginella, Cancellaria, Voluta, Turbinella (Mazza and Vasum, Bolten), also, internally, in most of the Columbellidee, and to some extent in the Cerithidae.