In the Manus Basin vestimentiferan tube worms occur between lava pillows in diffuse hydrothermal effluent emerging through crevices (temperature 10?15°C) near the northeastern end of the Manus Spreading Centre. The tubes grow in low, tangled clumps. The tubeworms are described here as a new species, new genus and new family. They have a narrow obturaculum with a small, smooth apex, a basibranchial blood supply to the pinnulate filaments, and no outer sheath lamellae. The new genus is distinct from the two vestimentiferan genera already known from the Lau Basin, which is ca 3000 km east of the Manus Basin. It is not, apparently, closely related to the vestimentiferans of the East Pacific Rise.
