Callyspongia Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864

Busutil, Linnet, García-Hernández, María R., Díaz, M. Cristina & Pomponi, Shirley A., 2018, Mesophotic sponges of the genus Callyspongia (Demospongiae, Haplosclerida) from Cuba, with the description of two new species, Zootaxa 4466 (1) : -

Genus Callyspongia Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864

Type species: Callyspongia fallax Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864 (by subsequent designation; Burton 1934).

Diagnosis: Growth form varying greatly, from massive to ramose, lamellate, foliaceous to infundibuliform, tubular or lobate, repent or erect. Ectosomal skeleton a tangential network formed by secondary and, in places, finer tertiary fibers (triple mesh ectosomal layer), or less ramified and with regular size of mesh (single mesh ectosomal layer). Choanosomal skeleton, a well–developed network of primary longitudinal fibers, fasciculated or non– fasciculated, spongin sheath always present. Primary fibers ramified to form secondary and tertiary fine fibers and a tertiary choanosomal network, or non–ramified, connected by short, parallel, non–ramified, secondary fibers. There may be a peripheral condensation of the choanosomal skeleton (Desqueyroux– Faúndez & Valentine 2002).