Stylasteridae of the New Caledonian Region ─ Tropical Deep-sea Benthos 28

Tropical Deep-Sea Benthos is a series dedicated to the inventory and description of the deep-sea fauna of the world, with special emphasis on their most extensive—but remote and least-explored—habitats: the Indo-West Pacific. Growing out of marine expeditions undertaken by the French National Museum of Natural History and the Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement, the series continues to present many new, strange, and sometimes colorful invertebrates.

The present volume presents results from recent expeditions within the New Caledonian Exclusive Economic Zone, reporting 98 species (including 57 new species) of corals from the Stylasteridae family and one new calcified species of hydrozoa from the family Hydractiniidae. Including numerous seamounts, submarine ridges, and small islands, New Caledonia’s deep-sea benthos are ideal habitat for stylasterids, making it the most species-rich marine region in the world for this taxon.

Stephen D. Cairns is a senior research-scientist in the Department of Invertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, where he has worked since 1976. To date, he has described over 500 new species of deep-water corals.