Conus (Gastropoda, Conidae) from the Marquesas Archipelago: Description of a new endemic offshore fauna

Based on surveys conducted in the 1980s-1990s, especially the MUSORSTOM 9 expedition, we report on the bathymetric occurences of 35 species of Conus in the Marquesas Archipelago. Four are new records of shallow-water tropical Indo-Pacific species, and six are new species that were dredged, essentially from depths between 100 and 400 meters. The species classically found in deep water elsewhere in the South Pacific are strikingly absent from the Marquesas, and the local deep-water faunule is thus highly endemic. This study confirms the Marquesas as a biogeographically outstanding archipelago, with a rather poor, but unique, benthic fauna. New species: Conus tiki spec. nov., C. dieteri spec. nov., C. pepeiu spec. nov., C. troendlei spec. nov., C. hivanus spec. nov. and C. pseudimperialis spec. nov