Dendropoma meroclista Hadfield and Kay, 1972. Shell: small (maximum tube diameter 1.5 mm); tube deeply embedded in the substrate and usually overgrown with calcareous algae. Aperture almost completely closed by a convex dome of shell, leaving only a narrow slit. Sculpture of irregular axial ribs and fine concentric striae on exposed portions of the shell. Exterior typically dark purple; interior white, sometimes stained with green. Operculum: mushroom-shaped, fitting under the convex dome of the aperture; nacreous white. Pedal surface planar except for the projecting mamilla. Animal: head, foot, and cephalic tentacles dark purple or black with a few superficial markings; pedal tentacles with a white spot near the tips. Mantle margin split in the females.
These small vermetids are solitary but settle within one or two millimeters of each other, on coralline algal-encrusted coral of fringing and patch reefs such as at Waikiki and in Kaneohe Bay, Oahu. The bilobed veliger larvae are planktonic for a few hours, or at most a few days; metamorphosis occurs when one and one-half to one and two-thirds whorls are complete (J. B. Taylor, 1975). D. meroclista was described from the Hawaiian Islands and is also common on the seaward reef flat at Enewetak, Marshall Islands.