Dr. Yuh-Wen Chiu,Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Biomedical Science and EnvironmentalBiology, Kaohsiung Medical University,has collected a species that morphologically resembles the Neritina genus of the Neritidaefamily of sea snails. Comparison analysis of the molecular data hasverified it as the Neritina siquijorensis,a newly recorded species of the Dongsha Atoll islands. Originally discovered inthe river environment on Siquijor Island, south of Cebu, Philippines,the scientific name Neritinasiquijorensis is derived from the Filipino word siquijor, which means “fire.” Nerites are a group of organisms thatthrive in intertidal zones, inhabiting various environments such as rockyreefs, gravel shores, estuaries, or beaches or rocks on muddy shores; they canalso be found in seaweed beds or mangrove forests. The marine environments ofthe Dongsha Atoll are made up of coral reefs, lagoons and lush seaweed beds.Previous investigations have shown that, of the two genus and 11 species ofNerites documented at the Dongsha Atoll, most belong to the Nerita and Smaragdia genus. The former live mostly in habitats with hardsubstrates, the latter tend to prefer seaweed beds. Neritina siquijorensis is the only Neritina species currently found inhabiting the Dongsha Atoll. Howdoes it thrive in lagoons where there are no influxes of fresh water orestuaries present, and how did it establish populations on the island? Thesequestions remain unanswered and require further investigation.