Type locality: Saya de Malha Bank, 10°30,S / 62°25'E. Range: Only known from the type locality. Endemic to the terracelike outer slope of the Saya de Malha Bank.
This large Lyria, one of the rarest in the world, was obtained from exploratory trawlings carried out by the Russians at the northern end of the Mascarene Plateau (Saya de Malha) during the seventies and again in 1989. First noticed and preserved by Russian collectors, it was brought to the attention of the West by Mr Harald Doute in 1990 and it was a great event.
Habitat: All specimens have been trawled at a depth of about 120-300 m (Bondarev, pers. comm.).

Description: Shell is large, fusiform, solid measuring up to 120 mm long. Protoconch white, bulbous of 1.5 whorls with indication of a calcarella. Teleoconch with six convex whorls. Sculpture of 22-24 pronounced, slightly sigmoid axial ribs on the penultimate and the
body whorl. Aperture is ovate measuring 0.50 of the total length. Outer lip is smooth, thickened by the last rib forming a thick labial varix externally. Columella bears plaits divided into two adjacent groups: anterior with 7-8 very strong folds, posterior with 3-4 plicae in a more ventral position. Background colour is creamy-white or light fawn crossed by three spiral bands of brown quadrangular blotches and spiral fine lines, often only visible on the top of the axial ribs. This pattern varies between three main types which probably represent different populations:
doutei, typical form, with a creamy-yellow background colour, rather blurred spiral blotches, columellar plaits divided into two clusters; doutei forma valentina (Bondarev, 1993), with a whitish background colour, well defined spiral blotches, columellar plaits more regularly set ; Banded form, shell with a large brown band in the middle of body whorl. This small sized shell seems to be intermediate between the above mentionned forms.


Some rare specimens have a pale pattern almost similar to that of Lyria lyraeformis, consisting of three bands of hazy brown markings, at times fusing, crossed by 15-20 spiral lines in groups of two or three. All these variations are probably only ecomorphic. Animal: Not available for study.
Comparison: Amongst the Indian Ocean large Lyria, only L. (Indolyria) bondarevi n. sp. from Nazareth Bank, L. (L) leslieboschae and L. (L) lyraeformis have a general morphology and/or colour pattern that resemble L. (I.) doutei.
L. (Indolyria) bondarevi n. sp. is a light shell with a deep suture crenulated by the adapical ends of axial ribs and a light orange pattern.
L. (L) leslieboschae is different by the distinct anal canal formed by its outer lip and a pattern of dark axial flamules interrupting the lighter spiral bands.
L. (I.) lyraeformis has a larger protoconch, fewer axial ribs and a different rich spiral pattern.
Remarks: Regarding the three variants, very poor information about the habitat of doutei was available when the Soviet fishing fleet used to trawl the Bank in the seventies. Only one juvenile dead specimen of the typical form was dredged by R/V Gordy in 1989 from a depth of 135 m. All other data is doubtful. However it seems that in this quite large submarine bank (about 28000 square nautical miles), there are some specific biotopes with local environmental conditions which lead to separate this species into different populations.