Living Brachiopods from French Polynesia, Central Pacific, with Descriptions of Two New Species

Abstract

Six species of recent brachiopods have been identified in material collected during the French Tarasoc Expedition to the Tarava Seamounts and the Society and Tuamotu Islands, French Polynesia, in 2009. Two of them, Frenulina sanguinolenta (Gmelin, 1790) and Thecidellina maxilla (Hedley, 1899), have already been reported from the studied region. Two species, Discradisca sparselineata (Dall, 1920) and Septicollarina zezinae Bitner, 2009, are reported for the first time from French Polynesia, and two other species are described as new, Dallithyris tahitiensis Bitner, n. sp., and Annuloplatidia curiosa Bitner, n. sp., although the latter species was already recorded from French Polynesia, ascribed to a different taxon. When compared with the brachiopod fauna from the southwestern Pacific, that of French Polynesia is taxonomically depauperate, which might reflect the younger geological age of the islands of the central Pacific.