Dysidea elegans (Nardo, 1847) sensu Brøndsted (1927)

Brøndsted (1927: 296) briefly and hesitantly compared a “lump-shaped” sponge from Slipper Island, off Pauanui on the Coromandel Peninsula, with the type of D. elegans, a Mediterranean species now recognised as D. tupha (Pallas, 1766) (Van Soest et al. 2018c) . While the external appearance did not conform to the type, Brøndsted considered that the height of the conules and their separation on the surface, and the fibre dimensions and their mode of anastomosing, did conform. No dimensions or illustrations of the New Zealand specimen were given, however. Brøndsted (1927) also cited Lendenfeld’s (1889: 655) record of D. elegans from Broken Bay, New South Wales, but this is a palmate species, now recognised as a species of Hyrtios Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864 (Van Soest et al. 2018d). Dysidea elegans (Nardo, 1847) sensu Brøndsted (1927) is unrecognisable.