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A new species of harpacticoid copepods, Xylora calyptogenae spec. n., from Edison Seamount, a hydrothermally active submarine volcano in the New Ireland Fore-Arc system (Papua New Guinea) is described. The new species belongs to the Donsiellinae Lang, 1944, a highly specialised taxon, the members of which have previously been encountered only in association with decaying wood and/or wood-boring isopods. A closer relationship of the Donsiellinae with the Pseudotachidiidae Lang, 1936, can be stated on the basis of characteristics concerning the setation and/or segmentation of A1, A2, Mxl, Mxp, the shape of the female P5, anal somite, sexual dimorphisms on P2 and P3 and missing caudal seta I. Within the Pseudotachidiidae, the Donsiellinae again can be well characterized, e.g. by the setation and segmentation of A2, Mxl, swimming-legs, the shape of P1, female P5, male P2, sexual dimorphism and male P5. The Donsiellinae share some apomorphies with the pseudotachidiid subtaxon Paranannopinae Por, 1986: setation/segmentation of Mx, P1, A1. X. calyptogenae spec. n. is more closely related to Xylora bathyalis Hicks 1988 living in the deep sea wood substrata in New Zealand waters. Some traits of the evolutionary history of the Donsiellinae become evident, probably starting from the more primitive deep sea taxa X .calyptogenae spec. n., which lives in the hydrothermal seafloor in the absence of decaying wood, and X. bathyalis, which is found in decaying wood but not necessarily associated with the wood-boring isopod Limnoria Leach, 1814, towards the more advanced genera such as Donsiella Stephensen, 1936, which invades shallow waters and, further, clings to Limnoria, forming a close and, for the copepod, probably obligatory association. The specialised mouthparts of X. calyptogenae spec. n. seem to facilitate the grabbing and fixing of larger and/or active food items. This is confirmed by the presence of a large prey organism, presumably a copepod, consumed either alive or dead, in the gut of one of the available specimens. This morphology of the mouthparts is also shared by the closely related X. bathyalis.