Callyspongia (Cladochalina) johannesthielei van Soest & Hooper, 2020

Fig. 6

Diagnostic features.

Lobate form and hard surface with numerous, raised, cone-shaped projections (pointed papillae). Several large oscula between ≈ 6–7 mm. Pink to red in living and pale yellow in alcohol. The skeleton is reticulate with a fiber tract. This species was described as Spinosella elegans Thiele, 1899 (junior secondary homonym of Callyspongia (Cladochalina) elegans (von Lendenfeld, 1887)) as a large cup-shaped sponge, ≈ 30 cm high, hollow along its entire length, a pale brownish color when dry, and with very characteristic pointed papillae, often fused into a cluster of several, on the outer surface (Thiele 1899). The spicules of Thiele’s species were shown as rather thin, short-tipped amphioxeas that are 90–100 µm × 3–5 µm (van Soest et al. 2020).

Distribution and ecology.

Kema Bay (1 ° 23 ' N, 125 ° 04 ' E), north Sulawesi (Thiele 1899); and north-west of Samalona Island, the Spermonde Archipelago; reef flat; attached on rock.