Psychropotid holothurians (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea: Elasipodida) of the tropical Western Pacific collected by the KEXUE expedition with description of one new species.

Two holothurian species of the family Psychropotidae were collected by RV KEXUE during the cruise to tropical Western Pacific. One of them, Benthodytes manusensis is described as new to science. The new species has a broad brim and reddish light violet body, with three pairs of well-developed dorsal papillae, arranged in two single rows, evenly distributed. Body wall ossicles were comprised of rods and large crosses with a bipartite central apophysis. We also provide the Genbank accession numbers of partial sequences of 16S rDNA and mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene. In addition, notes are presented on the morphology and distribution of another species Psychropotes depressa (Théel). http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:22B43A54-1B05-4812-A098-448A0044B49C [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]