| Twenty-nine species of Pectinoidea (12 Propeamussiidae, 1 Entoliidae, 16 Pectinidae) are recorded from the Austral Islands, the southernmost archipelago of French Polynesia. One genus (Pectinidae: Lamellipecten n. gen.) and five species (Propeamussiidae: Parvamussium australanum n. sp., Cyclochlamys australensis n. sp., Cyclopecten ambiguus n. sp.; Pectinidae: Lamellipecten aduncus n. gen., n. sp., Mimachlamys erycina n. sp.) are new to science, and most others are new records for the archipelago. The near-shore fauna of Rapa has 12 species of Pectinidae, and half of these have narrow-range distributions. Such a remarkably high level of marine endemism is shared by other mollusc taxa on Rapa. |
