Among the highlights of the collection is a series of Notocypraea declivis dennyorum Lorenz & Morrison 2013 from different localities. That subspecies has been described only in the year 2013 and the MSF owns a series of paratypes. A large Sassia sp., tentatively identified as parkinsoniana, may turn out to be new to science. Live-collected specimens of Pterochelis triformis, Philippa lutea, and Cancellaria lactea are rarely, if ever, seen. There are exceptional sets of perfect Phasianella australis and Callanaitis disjecta as well as outstanding specimens of Penion maximus, P. mandarinus, and Cabestana spengleri.
Kavieng Lagoon Biodiversity Survey
New Ireland, Papua New Guinea
On the order of 2,500 species of molluscs have approximately been sampled, but unlike what was done for crustaceans, no segregation to morphospecies was carried out on-site. Some 5,200 specimens were individually tissue-clipped for future sequencing, representing 1,000 to 1,500 species. 605 different specimens have been photographed, representing about 550 species. The expedition has sampled the species previously described from Kavieng and currently known only from here (e.g., Dentimargo ratzingeri, Janaoliva amoni, Archivolva lissenungensis, Vexillum rubrotaeniatum).
In terms of numbers, Kavieng is now confirmed to be at least as rich - but not obviously markedly richer - than Madang. A number of the species "abnormally missing" in Madang are present here - but others are also equally missing in Kavieng, which suggests that they are regionally missing entirely - and not just that we were unlucky and did not find them.
However, in terms of species composition - and not just species numbers - Kavieng and Madang appear to significantly differ from each other: of 695 species of crustaceans sampled in Kavieng, as many as 367 (i.e., 53%) had not been found in Madang. The reverse - how many were seen in Madang and not in Kavieng? - is at this moment unanswerable as the Kavieng expedition has not yet sampled the habitats deeper than 40 meters.