Cyerce liliuokalaniae K. Moreno, Gosliner, N. G. Wilson, Krug & Á. Valdés, 2025

Location: Yaene, Hachijo Island, Tokyo, Japan
Date: 2026/03/21
Length: 20mm
Depth: 8.0m
Water temperature: 18.0℃

Description

Body colour light cream to pale green, with white specks throughout. The pericardium is creamy-white, irregularly shaped, and located dorso-medially. The head is light cream with few white specks; a dark burgundy patch covers the rhinophore bases and surrounds the eyes. The rhinophores are bifurcated, cream with small white specks scattered sparsely throughout. The oral tentacles are translucent white with white specks scattered throughout. The cerata are bulbous, obovate, translucent white, with web-like burgundy striations forming hexagonal patterns and white specks scattered throughout. Newly formed cerata are translucent clear with light burgundy striations. The foot is wider than the body, with an elongated posterior end; the foot is light cream to translucent white dorsally, with a burgundy hue along the edges. Holotype preserved length: 11 mm.

Distribution

At the time of the original description, known only from the Hawaiian Islands (Oʻahu and Maui).

Etymology

Named in honour of Lydia Liliʻu Loloku Walania Kamakaʻeha, Queen Liliʻuokalani (1838-1917), the last sovereign monarch of Ke Aupuni Hawaiʻi (the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi) until her overthrow by the US Government on January 17, 1893.

Remarks

Cyerce liliuokalaniae is distinguished from every other Cyerce species by the combination of white specks distributed over the entire body and translucent cerata bearing web-like burgundy striations that lack tubercles. Confirmed habitat records are from beneath rocks; the diet is unknown. Molecular phylogenetic analyses recover this species as sister to Cyerce orteai from the Eastern Pacific Ocean, and the pair together forms a sister clade to the western Pacific Cyerce pavonina and Cyerce goodheartae.