Type locality: 11°03'S / 61°01'E. Saya de Malha, Mascarene Ridge. Range: Only known from the type locality. Endemic to the Saya de Malha Bank
Habitat: Trawled at 120 m deep on silty sand with shell debris. Description: Shell is large, fusiform, light but solid, measuring between 90 and 140 mm. Protoconch has 2.5 smooth whorls, large with an average diameter of 3.5 mm, bulbous with a short spur, slighty tilted on its vertical axis. Spire is high. Teleoconch with 6-7 moderately convex whorls. Sculpture of thin axial ribs, 20-21 on the penultimate whorl and of spiral grooves on the rib interspaces becoming deeper furrows on the anterior part of the body whorl. Aperture is very narrow measuring 0.50 of the total length. Outer lip is thin, straight or slightly contracting the aperture in the middle. Columella bears plaits divided into two groups: anterior with seven strong plaits; posterior with five small folds in a more ventral position. Background colour is light beige with a rather simple pattern consisting of a hazy brown-orange band, subsutural on spire, median and posterior on the body whorl. Protoconch and aperture are pale yellow. Animal: Not available for study.
Comparison: Its light structure and its pattern make this shell unmistakable. It can be compared only to its related neighbour from Nazareth Bank, L. (I.) bondarevi, which is different by having more convex whorls, a much deeper suture strongly crenelated by the adapical ends of the axial ribs, a glossy surface and a different spiral pattern.
Remarks: This Lyria has a story behind it to explain the misplaced name. Dallivoluta surinamensis was described by Okutani in 1983, as a new genus and species morphologically close to Fulgorariinae, based on a single dead shell and fragments, supposedly collected from the waters of Surinam (ex Dutch Guyana) according to the coordinates mistakenly given to Okutani with various marine material from different Japanese scientific vessels: 1 l°03!N/61°0rW. In fact these coordinates had been erroneously inverted: if we read South instead of North, and East instead of West, we plot exactly on the Saya de Malha Bank in the Indian Ocean.
The law of precedence sometimes produces unfortunate paradoxes. We see in this case L. surinamensis from the Indian Ocean trying to balance another geographical blunder of former times: Cassis madagascariensis (Lamarck, 1822) from the Caribbean.

Described as Dallivoluta surinamensis:

Shell fusiform, turrated, rather thin and light. The body whorl occupies about 65 percent of the total length. The surface is dull (but seemingly more shining when alive) and has dark orangy color bands below and above the suture (shoulder and periphery) on the pinkish fleshy background. These color bands are essentially rows of subquadrate blotches which are barely linked together with much paler bands in between. On the body whorl there is one additional bands below (anterior to) the peripheral band on the neck part.
Protoconch is bulbous, white, about 2.5 in number of turns. Teleoconch whorls are about 6.5 in number of turns and they are slightly inflated, weakly shouldered with subchanneled sutures. They are ornamented by strong axial ribs and weak spiral grooves. Axial ribs are counted about 20 on the penultimate whorl, almost straight but faintly curved and arranged at rather regular interspaces. The adapical ends of these ribs are pointed and more prominent than interspaces so that they give the suture a crenulated appearance (this character is more evident in the earlier whorls). Axial ribs almost vanish on the body whorls except several, which reach to the base and neck on the ventral side, and only growth lines are visible on the dorsal side. The spiral sculptures are only weak spiral grooves which curve convex downwards (anteriorly) in interspaces between axial ribs so that they appear a wavy pattern. Spiral grooves are about 10 or more per whorl and arranged in a rather regular space. However, they become obsolete in the penultimate whorl and finally vanish on the later portion of the body whorl. Another 10 spiral grooves are present on the neck part and they become quite obsolete adapically but somewhat strong ones create weak steps in the middle.
Aperture is hemi-elliptical in outline and siphonostomatous. The outer lip is smooth and slightly thickened and reflected. The inner surface of the outer lip has no sculpture and pale fleshy in color. The columellar lip has a whitish callus of lenticulate outline. There are eight columellar folds that become stronger adapically (anteriorly). There are three more much lower plicae adapical to these strong folds (therefore, 11 in all). The siphonal canal is short and is only slightly twisted. Animal and operculum (if present) are not known as only a single dead specimen (with a big hole on the body whorl) and fragments (apical, neck and parietal wall regions) are available. Shell length 104.5 mm. breadth 35.0 mm.