Galearctus avulsus

Galearctus avulsus lives in the waters around New Caledonia and the Chesterfield Islands, at depths of 230–680 metres (750–2,230 ft). It may also occur around Fiji.^[2] Although G. avulsus is very poorly known, it has a large range and no apparent threats, and is therefore listed as being of Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.^[1]

In 1962, Harada described a new species of slipper lobster, "Scyllarus kitanoviriosus" from shallow water (less than 100 m or 330 ft deep) around Japan, Korea and Taiwan.^[2] In 2002, Lipke Holthuis revised the Indo-Pacific slipper lobsters, erecting a new genus, Galearctus for "S. kitanoviriosus" and its nearest relatives. At the same time, Holthuis added records of G. kitanoviriosus from deeper waters in the South Pacific.^[2] Re-examination of the specimens from the two parts of the range by Chien-Hui Yang, I-Shiung Chen and Tin-Yam Chan from National Taiwan Ocean University revealed constant differences between the two groups.^[2] Since the type material of G. kitanoviriosus was from the northern part of the range, they described the southern populations as a new species, G. avulsus; the specific epithet avulsus meaning "torn away", in reference to the shape of the median groove on the first thoracic sternite.^[2] DNA sequencing of the cytochrome oxidase I gene suggests that the nearest relative of G. avulsus is not G. kitanoviriosus but G. rapanus.^[2]