Abstract

We describe five new species of Pycnomerus (P. mahanatoa, P. rairua, P. raivavae, P. taralewisae, and P. vavitu spp. nov.) from subfossil material collected on the island of Raivavae in the Austral Archipelago of French Polynesia. Like the two species of Pycnomerus recently described from Rimatara (Porch & Smith 2017), we consider it is probable that some or even most of the endemic Raivavae species are globally extinct. This is because the species have, so far, only been found in as subfossil specimens in sediments that date to the period immediately before or just after human arrival on the island (c.1300 AD), they have not been collected historically, and very little indigenous forest of Raivavae remains. These species add to the growing body of knowledge regarding the zopherid fauna of eastern Polynesia, which is, and unfortunately will always likely be, based primarily on the subfossil record from the region.