This particular sapsucker is an extremely rare sighting on Maui, and perhaps anywhere. As Cory Pittman of Sea Slugs of Hawaii points out, Thuridilla vatae is relatively common throughout the Indo-western Pacific, but these individuals shows clear differences in their markings (see Sea Slug Forum for more photos and discussion).  We call it the Taradilla after Tara, who spotted the first, and larger individual (25 mm) in less than 3 metres (10ft) of water in a rocky, rubble, algae-covered and sandy area in North Kihei. We were looking for hawksbills and we found this tiny nudibranch instead – along with several other elysias that day. The younger and smaller individual (10 mm) was found very close to where the first one was, 4 years later (Fall of ’22) — a hopeful sign.