The species was described in 2006 by Australian marine biologists P. Mark O'Loughlin and Francis Winston Edric Rowe, and gets its name from Chantal Conand.

The gonopores (genital openings) are located on the upper side, and the observed sex ratio is 52 males per 93 females, but some specimens are hermaphrodites.

[1] This species was first spotted at Réunion Island (south-tropical Indian Ocean) at the breakers on a coral reef at a section known as the "Watering Hole" (south of La Saline les Bains), where it is abundant.

It was later identified in all the Mascarenes (mainly Mauritius and Rodrigues), where it occurs between the surface and 10 m (33 ft) but more often on the reef front and rocky cliffs, but also on volcanic flows.

[2] This species was described in 2006 by P. Mark O'Loughlin and Francis Winston Edric Rowe, on the basis of material collected by Chantal Conand at Réunion Island, after whom it was named.