Polychelidae from the southern and western Pacific (Decapoda, Polychelida)

Deep-sea blind lobsters (Polychelidae) from Fiji, Tonga, the Solomon Islands, and Austral Islands are studied. We report the first records of Polychelidae from Tonga, the Solomon and Austral islands, and the first records from Fiji since the Challenger expedition in 1874. Fourteen species in two genera are reported: two species of Pentacheles Bate, 1878 and 12 species of Polycheles Heller, 1862. Polycheles alis n. sp., from the Austral Islands, closely resembles P. ceratus (Alcock, 1894) from Indonesia and the Andaman Sea. The new species differs from P. ceratus chiefly in having a small and blunt instead of massive, sharp, antrorse spine on the fifth abdominal tergite. Polycheles martini Ahyong & Brown, 2002, previously known only from Australia, is reported from Tonga.