Neopetrosia pandora de Laubenfels, 1954

Setiawan, Edwin, Erpenbeck, Dirk, Wörheide, Gert & De Voogd, Nicole J., 2018, Bearing the wrong identity: A case study of an Indo-Pacific common shallow water sponge of the genus Neopetrosia (Haplosclerida; Petrosiidae), Zootaxa 4500 (1), pp. 43-58 : 48

Neopetrosia pandora de Laubenfels, 1954

Figure 1D , 2D , 3D , Table 1

Neopetrosia pandora de Laubenfels, 1954: 81 , Fig. 49.

Material examined: Holotype: USNM 23046 , Palau, Matalim , East Ponape, 1 August 1949, 5m depth, coll. M.W. de Laubenfels.

Description (amended from de Laubenfels 1954): A repent or sprawling ramose sponge, reaching a maximum length of at least 13 cm. The diameter of the branches is 9 mm; oscules are about 2 mm in diameter and 2 cm apart.

Colour. Colour in life is dull olive drab.

Consistency. Slightly spongy but also somewhat stiff, tearing very easily.

Spicules. Oxeas in a range of 100- 119.8 -150 x 2.5- 2.9 -5 µm.

Skeleton. Less dense, more irregular isodictyal spicule network with one size of spicule.

Remarks: De Laubenfels (1954) described that the consistency of the type specimen was slightly spongy, somewhat stiff and tearing very easily. The surface of the type specimen does not possess an ectosomal specialisation, which is a typical characteristic of sponges from Family Chalinidae . Little or lack of spongin in skeleton was observed. The spicules are also much thinner than the other spicules of type specimens and samples analysed in this study.

Figures

FIGURE 1. A Neopetrosia chaliniformis (Thiele, 1899) holotype ZMB2889, B Neopetrosia exigua (Kirkpatrick, 1901), holotype BMNH1898.12.20.49, C Xestospongia pacifica Kelly-Borges & Bergquist, holotype AM Z4999, and D Neopetrosia pandora de Laubenfels, 1954, holotype USNM4806. Scale bar= 1 cm.

FIGURE 2. Oxea from the holotypes of A Neopetrosia chaliniformis (Thiele, 1899) ZMB2889, B Neopetrosia exigua (Kirkpatrick, 1901), BMNH1898.12.20.49, C Xestospongia pacifica Kelly-Borges & Bergquist, AMS Z4999, and D Neopetrosia pandora de Laubenfels, 1954, USNM4806. Scale bar= 50 µm

FIGURE 3. Spicule arrangement in holotypes of A Neopetrosia chaliniformis (Thiele, 1899) ZMB2889, B Neopetrosia exigua (Kirkpatrick, 1901), BMNH1898.12.20.49, C Xestospongia pacifica Kelly-Borges & Bergquist, AMS Z4999, and D Neopetrosia pandora de Laubenfels, 1954, USNM4806. Scale bar= 150 µm.