Smenospongia spinulosa, Sim & Lee & Kim, 2016

Sim, Chung Ja, Lee, Kyung Jin & Kim, Young A, 2016, Twelve new species of two genera Smenospongia and Cacospongia (Demospongia: Dictyoceratida: Thorectidae) from Korea, Journal of Species Research 5 (1), pp. 31-48 : 32

1. Smenospongia spinulosa n. sp. ( Fig. 1 )

Type specimen. Holotype ( NIBRIV0000321365 ), Korea:

Jeollanam-do, Shinan-gun, Heuksan-myeon, Gageodo Island (Jakeunganyeo), 14 Oct 2013, Kim HS, by SCUBA diving, Depth 20 m, deposited in the NIBR .

Description. Thick mass, size up to 15 × 9 × 5 cm. Surface, honeycomb patterned and conules distinct, with slimy dermal membrane. Several oscules, 1-5 mm in diameter, open on surface of sponge. Colour in life, beige turns to black soon after exposure to air. Texture, soft and compressible. Choanosome, lightly cavernous like bread.

Skeleton: Primary fibres, 100-140-250 μm in diameter, fasciculated fibres, 400-500 μm in diameter, cored with dense spicules which come out from fibres like rose spine. Regularly arranged at surface and dark colour. Choanosomal fibres, irregularly arranged, and light colour. Secondary fibres, 10-50-100 μm in diameter, irregularly arranged at choanosome, 160 μm in diameter at base. Fibres cored with round mass like egg.

Etymology. The specfic name, spinulosa , is named after that the figures of primary fibres with spicules.

Remark. This species is similar to Smenospongia nuda (in Levi 1969) in shape and colour but it differs in its fibres. Primary and secondary fibres of the new species are thicker than them of Levi’s specimen (Primary fibres 90-180 μm, secondary fibres 20-45 μm in diameter). It is not easy to find cored in fibres, because they are too thick and dark brown colour except large spicules coming out from the fibres. Many large sands are contained in the choanosome. The spine of primary fibres is distinctly protruding at the surface, but they are indistinct at the choanosome fibres.

Figures

Fig. 1. Smenospongia spinulosa n. sp. A, entire animal; B, closed surface; C, surface skeletal structure; D, choanosome; E, surface skeletal structure; F, closed primary fibres. Scale bars:A=2 cm, C-E=200 μm, F=100μm.