A new taxon was founded from hydrothermal vent of Manus Back-Arc Basin, at a depth of 1,740 m, which was named as Lamellomphalus manusensis by Scientists from Institute of Oceanology, CAS. Recently, this finding was published in The Nautilus (2017, 131: 76–86) entitled “A new genus and species of Neomphalidae from a hydrothermal vent of the Manus Back-Arc Basin, western Pacific (Gastropoda: Neomphalina)”.

Neomphalidae are a group of gastropods that exclusively inhabits chemosynthetic environments, consisting of six genera and eight species that known from East Pacific Rise, Galapagos Rift, Lau Basin, Axial Seamount and Mariana Back-Arc Basin. During an investigation on Manus Back-Arc Basin, more than 130 limpet-like gastropods were collected by the mechanical arm of the ROV FAXIAN in the course of sampling the rock where specimens were attached. Observations on their shell, radula features and external anatomy confirmed that they represent a new taxon belonging to the family Neomphalidae McLean, 1981. Lamellomphalus manusensis is characterized by possessing haliotiform shell with some degree of coiling, which could be considered as an intermediate form in the family Neomphalidae McLean, 1981, between species with regularly coiled shells and limpet-like shells.

Corresponding author: Shuqian Zhang (zsqtaxon@163.com), Institute of Oceanology, CAS

Lamellomphalus manusensis Zhang & Zhang, 2017