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Issue: Vol. 2073 No. 1: 16 Apr. 2009
Type: Article
Published: 2009-04-16
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.2073.1.5
Page range: 57–68
Abstract views: 60
PDF downloaded: 33

Two new species of Chondrocladia (Demospongiae: Cladorhizidae) with a new spicule type from the deep south Pacific, and a discussion of the genus Meliiderma

Centre d’Océanologie de Marseille, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS UMR 6540 DIMAR, Station Marine d’Endoume, rue Batterie des Lions, 13007 Marseille, France
National Centre for Aquatic Biodiversity and Biosecurity, National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research Ltd, Private Bag 99940, Auckland 1149, New Zealand
Biodiversity Program, Queensland Museum, PO Box 3300, South Brisbane, Queensland 4101, Australia
Porifera carnivorous sponges seamounts New Zealand Tasmania Cladorhizidae Chondrocladia Meliiderma new species

Abstract

Two new species of Chondrocladia are described from the deep Pacific, off New Zealand and South Australia. These presumably carnivorous sponges are characterized by the presence of a sheath of special spicules along the stalk, for which the new term ‘trochirhabd’ is coined. Similar spicules were known from fossil strata of the Early Jurassic, suggesting that Cladorhizidae were already present in the Mesozoic. The arrangement of the trochirhabds along the stalk is similar to that described in the genus Meliiderma, which has been synonymized with Chondrocladia. We propose here the revival of Meliiderma as a subgenus of Chondrocladia, for Chondrocladia stipitata Ridley & Dendy, 1887, from the subantarctic Indian Ocean, C. occulta (Lehnert et al., 2006), described from the North Pacific as a species of Latrunculia, and for C. turbiformis sp.nov. and C. tasmaniensis sp.nov. from New Zealand’s Chatham Rise and several Tasmanian seamounts, respectively, described herein.

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