It is hypothetized that the derived strategy of housing endosymbiotic microbes in an oesophageal gland, has been the catalyst for anatomical innovations that serve primarily to improve the fitness of the bacteria, over and above the needs of the snail. The great enlargement of the oesophageal gland, the snail's protective dermal sclerites, its highly enlarged respiratory and circulatory systems and its high fecundity are all considered to be adaptations which are beneficial to its endosymbiont microbes. These adaptations appear to be a result of specialisation to resolve energetic needs in an extreme chemosynthetic environment. This species inhabits the hydrothermal vent fields of the Indian Ocean. It lives adjacent to both acidic and reducing vent fluid, on the walls of black-smoker chimneys, or directly on diffuse flow sites. The depth of the Kairei field varies from , and its dimensions are approximately . The slope of the field is 10° to 30°. The substrate rock is troctolite and depleted mid-ocean ridge basalt. The Kairei-field scaly-foot gastropods live in the low-temperature diffuse fluids of a single chimney. The transitional zone, where these gastropods were found, is about in width, with temperature of 2–10 °C. The preferred water temperature for this species is about 5 °C. These snails live in an environment which has high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide, and low concentrations of oxygen. The abundance of scaly-foot gastropods was lower in the Kairei field than in the Longqi field. The Kairei hydrothermal-vent community consists of 35 taxa, including sea anemones "Marianactis" sp., crustaceans "Austinograea rodriguezensis", "Rimicaris kairei", "Mirocaris indica", "Munidopsis" sp., Neolepadidae genus and sp., "Eochionelasmus" sp., bivalves "Bathymodiolus marisindicus", gastropods "Lepetodrilus" sp., "Pseudorimula" sp., "Eulepetopsis" sp., "Shinkailepas" sp., and "Alviniconcha marisindica", "Desbruyeresia marisindica", "Bruceiella wareni", "Phymorhynchus" sp., "Sutilizona" sp., slit limpet sp. 1, slit limpet sp. 2, "Iphinopsis boucheti", solenogastres "Helicoradomenia"? sp., annelids "Amphisamytha" sp., "Archinome jasoni", Capitellidae sp. 1, "Ophyotrocha" sp., Hesionoidae sp. 1, Hesionoidae sp. 2, "Branchinotogluma" sp., "Branchipolynoe" sp., "Harmothoe"? sp., "Levensteiniella"? sp., "Prionospio" sp., unidentified Nemertea and unidentified Platyhelminthes.