Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 4034 No. 1: 28 Oct. 2015
Type: Article
Published: 2015-10-28
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4034.1.8
Page range: 161–181
Abstract views: 39
PDF downloaded: 9

Two new species of Timea from the Southwest Atlantic (Timeidae, Demospongiae, Porifera)

TAXPO – Laboratório de Taxonomia de Porifera, Departamento de Invertebrados, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Quinta da Boa Vista, s/n, São Cristóvão, 20940-040 – Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
TAXPO – Laboratório de Taxonomia de Porifera, Departamento de Invertebrados, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Quinta da Boa Vista, s/n, São Cristóvão, 20940-040 – Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
TAXPO – Laboratório de Taxonomia de Porifera, Departamento de Invertebrados, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Quinta da Boa Vista, s/n, São Cristóvão, 20940-040 – Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
TAXPO – Laboratório de Taxonomia de Porifera, Departamento de Invertebrados, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Quinta da Boa Vista, s/n, São Cristóvão, 20940-040 – Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
Porifera taxonomy sponges biodiversity Brazil morphology

Abstract

Comprising 56 species, Timea Gray, 1867 belongs to the monotypic family Timeidae Gray, 1867, with both family and genus characterized by the presence of (sub)tylostyles as megascleres, and euasters as microscleres. Two new species are described from the coast of Rio de Janeiro state, Timea berlincki sp. nov. and Timea clandestina sp. nov., the first of which also from São Paulo state (southeastern Brazil). Both are compared to other species based on their morphological and skeletal characters. Records of all species of the genus worldwide are tabulated and discussed, and an identification key for Tropical western Atlantic species of Timea is offered.