Octocorallia from the Bismarck Sea (Part I)

In the years 1975-77 co-operators of the King Leopold III Biological Station at Laing Island, northern coast of Papua-New Guinea, collected a number of octocorals belonging to the orders Stolonifera and Alcyonacea. The more than eighty species include seven new species : Lobophytum cryptocormum, Sarcophyton mililatensis, Sinularia acetabulata, Sinularia lamellata, Sinularia sobolifera, Xenia actuosa, and Xenia mucosa. They are described in this paper.