Taipei, May 2 (CNA) A retired elementary school teacher in Kinmen on Thursday unveiled to the world a new species of sea snails found in the offshore island county's Lieyu Township.

Hung Ching-chang (洪清漳), 61, a longtime observer of marine animals, discovered the new species at Liaoluo Port in December 2016 while participating in a survey commissioned by the Kinmen National Park headquarters to document organisms inhabiting the township.

The mollusk, which could grow to eight millimeters and carried a hard pyramid shaped shell circled with colorful pearly papules, was given to species identification experts Huang Shih-i (黃式毅) and Fu I-feng (傅譯鋒) for evaluation in 2018.

It was later entered in the World Register of Marine Species database in April 2019.

Hung named the species, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Calliostomatidae, "Calliostoma hungi Huang & Fu, 2019," using hungi, Hung's Latin family name, and Huang and Fu, the last names of the species identification experts.

Hung said he had dreamed of the discovery of a new species and naming it by using his own surname.

(By Amy Huang, Evelyn Kao and William Yen)Enditem/cs