>I had thought of Thiaridae or something similar and so I looked in my 1st
>edition of Brown's "Freshwater Snails of Africa and their Medical
>Importance" and didn't find any picture that looked really similar to my
>shells. Yesterday evening I looked through pictures of West African
>Terebrids on www.gastropods.com and found that mine look very much like
>Hastula (Impages) aciculina (Lamarck 1822). So maybe my aunt was mistaken
>about where she had collected them.
>Thank you to all who helped!

Many terebrids have a prominent subsutural cord which is often
gemmate. Melaniids lack this. Melaniids characteristically have a
distinct broad sinus in the outer lipe; in terebrids this is much
shallower. Terebrids have a prominent siphonal fasciole, with a deep
siphonal notch; melaniids never do.
--
Regards
Andrew