Three new species of Marphysa Quatrefages, 1866, Marphysa bananasp. nov., Marphysa papuaensissp. nov., and Marphysa zanolaesp. nov. are described from deep-sea sunken vegetation off Papua New Guinea, using both morphology and molecular data (for two species). With the presence of compound spinigers only and the branchiae present over many chaetigers, Marphysa bananasp. nov. belongs to the group B2. This species is characterised by the presence of eyes, the presence of branchiae starting from chaetiger 20, and by the presence of three types of pectinate chaetae and bidentate subacicular hooks starting from chaetigers 13–52. With the presence of compound falcigers only and the branchiae restricted to a short anterior region, Marphysa papuaensissp. nov. belongs to the group C1. This species has a bilobed prostomium but no eyes, has branchiae from chaetigers 7 to 14–16 with up to 16 filaments. Marphysa papuaensissp. nov. is also characterised by the presence of bidentate subacicular hooks from chaetiger 20 and by a single type of pectinate chaetae. Finally, Marphysa zanolaesp. nov. belongs to the group C2, with the presence of compound falcigers only and the branchiae present over many chaetigers. This species is characterised by the absence of eyes, by the presence of branchiae with a single long filament starting from chaetiger 31, by unidentate subacicular hooks starting from chaetiger 28 and finally by one type of pectinate chaetae with very long outer teeth.

KAVIENG 2014, MADEEP

BICOSE

AURORA 2007, BENTHAUS, BOA0, BOA1, BORDAU 1, BORDAU 2, EBISCO, NORFOLK 1, NORFOLK 2, PANGLAO 2005, SALOMON 2, SALOMONBOA 3, SANTO 2006, TARASOC, TERRASSES

The deep-sea part of the ‘Papua Niugini Biodiversity Expedition’ surveyed the deep-sea environments along the coasts of New Guinea Island in the Bismarck Sea, from the Vitiaz Strait to the border between Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Irian Jaya. This expedition was a follow-up of the BIOPAPUA cruise (2010) that gave some of the first insights into the diversity of the deep-sea fauna of the Bismarck and Solomon Seas for environments other than deep-sea hydrothermal vents. The main aims of the cruise were to survey the diversity of the fauna of (i) hard bottoms that are typically found on deep seamounts, (ii) Astrolabe Bay from 200 m to about 1000 m, (iii) the chemosynthetic environments of the deep sea, including cold-seep environments and plant debris. Astrolabe Bay was one of our targets because its topography allows sampling over the complete bathymetric gradient covered by our sampling gear (down to 1000 m depth), and the recent start of nickel refining activities in the bay is a potential threat to its marine fauna for which little reference data are available. Sampling in the bay revealed not only a diversified fauna associated with soft bottoms and plant debris, but also a chemosynthetic fauna typical of coldseep environments (e.g. siboglinid worms and bathymodioline mussels) below the Ramu refinery. Although the refinery activities had officially started just one week before our work in the area, we observed impacts of these activities. Our molecular work indicates that the siboglinid tubeworm species and one of the two mussel species collected below the Ramu refinery have so far only been documented from this location, despite intensive sampling effort. This illustrates the potential destructive effects of human activities in areas where the diversity and uniqueness of deep-sea communities are poorly understood.

BIOPAPUA, MADEEP, PAPUA NIUGINI