This is New Zealand’s largest species of chiton. It is oval and generally flattened. Juvenile forms have bright mottled colouration of pink, brown, yellow and green. The colour patterns provide camouflage. The shells of the adults are often heavily encrusted or eroded. It has a wide leathery girdle covered with short, dark bristles. It has many shell eyes which look like tiny black dots scattered over the shell surfaces

Found from the low intertidal to 30 m around NZ. Juveniles tend to live under large rocks and boulders, adults live on open rock surfaces in kelp beds and on top of boulders on semi to exposed coastlines.

Grazer.

NZ Coastal Marine Invertebrates; Vol 1