The Australian Museum Lord Howe Island Expedition 2017—marine invertebrates
Abstract
Despite less than perfect oceanic conditions generated by tropical cyclone Debbie in 2017, a field team from the Australian Museum Research Institute sampled marine invertebrates from multiple habitat types around Lord Howe Island. Collections were made during two weeks in March–April 2017 from intertidal sand-flats and reefs, and from subtidal habitats using SCUBA. Hand collecting was supplemented with limited use of traps. Protocols emphasized fixation and preservation methods that favour molecular approaches to systematics. One hundred and thirteen samples were collected from 16 sites. The samples contain multiple phyla, with the predominant taxa targeted being Mollusca, Crustacea and Polychaeta. Many samples still need to be sorted and analysed in detail. Lysiosquilloid mantis shrimps and axiidean ghost shrimps, the isopod taxa Cirolana, Joeropsididae and Stenetriidae, polychaete species of Hydroides, Serpula, and Vermiliopsis, and the blanket octopus Tremoctopus gracilis (Eydoux & Souleyet, 1852) are recorded for the first time from Lord Howe Island.