Luria tessellata has an unmistakable shell and a thin, translucent mantle through which the shell pattern can be easily seen. These are found under rocks by day and in ledges and small caves at night. At night they can be found as shallow as about 4m but most specimens are deeper. Interestingly, the beach at Green Island in Kure Atoll at the northwestern end of the Hawaiian chain had quite a number of empty L. tessellata shells, mostly smaller than those seen around Oahu. Not only are they apparently fairly common up there, they must live in shallow enough water to be easily washed ashore. Long thought to be endemic to the Hawaiian Islands, a few very similar specimens have been found in deep water in scattered locations throughout the Pacific, suggesting a wider distribution in deep water. The non-Hawaiian specimens differ slightly in shell color and have been given the subspecific name Luria tessellata lani; the Hawaiian subspecies is L. tessellata tessellata.
The thin mantle nearly completely covers the shell in the photo below.
31.1mm specimen below.
24.5mm specimen below.
Updated 25 December 2020