A new species of sea anemone (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Actiniaria) from Manus Basin hydrothermal vents, South-western Pacific

Abstract

During the BIOACCESS Japanese cruises (1996 & 1998), active hydrothermalism and associated vent fauna were studied on the South-eastern Rift of Manus Basin (South-western Pacific). In the PACMANUS vent field, a conspicuous vent fauna was sampled, including an actinostolid sea anemone (Actiniaria) belonging to an undescribed genus and species. Pacmanactis hashimotoi gen. et spec. nov. is here described, and represents the 9th sea anemone reported from hydrothermal vents.

Keywords:

• Actiniaria
• Actinostolidae
• hydrothermal vents
• back-arc basins
• Manus Basin

The authors thank the Chief scientist Jun Hashimoto of the BIOACCESS'96 and BIOACCESS'98 (Biological Investigation of a Chemosynthetic Community: Ecological and Systematic Survey) cruises, organized by JAMSTEC, and the crew of R/V Natsushima and the submersible Shinkai 2000, for collecting specimens and making them available for study. Sincere thanks are extended to Shinji Tsuchida (JAMSTEC, Japan), for his improvements to the manuscript. We also thank V. Martin for preparing the map (Figure 1). Partial support was provided by a MCT-CSIC grant (I3P-BPD2001) to Estefanía Rodríguez. Tony Krupa is thanked for reviewing the final English version. The authors are also thankful for comments and suggestions given by Vreni Häussermann and an anonymous referee.

Notes

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark