Smenospongia scalaris, 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 : 37-38

6. Smenospongia scalaris n. sp. ( Fig. 6 )

Type specimen. Holotype ( NIBRIV0000321370 ), Korea: Jeollanam-do, Shinan-gun, Heuksan-myeon, Gageodo Island (Baganyeo), 27 Jul 2005, Lee KJ, by SCUBA diving, Depth 25 m, deposited in the NIBR.

Description. Thick mass, size up to 10 × 6 × 2.5 cm. Surface, smooth with round conules and slimy membrane, associated with bryozoan and other sponge. Oscules, 1-2 mm in diameter, open at top of sponge. Colour, dark gray in life turns to black. Texture soft and compressible. Skeleton: Regularly arranged primary fibres, 100-150 μm in diameter, weakly cored with detritus, but fibres’s colour too dark to see cored detritus. Ladder-like fasciculate fibres 500 μm in diameter at surface. Secondary fibres, 50-80 μm in diameter, regularly arranged. Connected secondary fibres with primary fibres, 20-25 μm in diameter. Choanosomal primary fibres, 200-250 μm in diameter, thicker than fibres near surface and almost uncored. Choanosomal secondary fibres, 60-100 μm in diameter and 30-50 μm in diameter at base.

Etymology. The specific name, scalaris , is named after the shape of ladder-like skeletal structure.

Remark. This new species is characterized by having ladder-like skeletal form at the surface. This form is similar to Smenospongia duokyeo n. sp. in skeletal form but differs in diameter of fasciculated ladder-like form, they are much larger than this new species.

Figures

Fig. 6. Smenospongia scalaris n. sp. A, entire animal; B, closed surface; C, surface skeletal structure; D, surface skeletal structure; E, cho- anosome skeletal structure; F, closed skeletal structure. Scale bars: A=2 cm, C-E=200μm, F=100 μm.