Advhena, Castello-Branco & Collins & Hajdu, 2020

Castello-Branco, Cristiana, Collins, Allen G. & Hajdu, Eduardo, 2020, A collection of hexactinellids (Porifera) from the deep South Atlantic and North Pacific: new genus, new species and new records, PeerJ 8, pp. e 9431-e 9431 : 13

Genus Advhena gen. nov.

LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:C9 A45855 -9AA8-4088-8665-9830A8CC59AB

Type species: Advhena magnifica gen. et sp. nov. (described below)

Diagnosis

Bolosominae with a globular body slightly fl attened, with big lateral opening and long stalk (at least four times the body size). Choanosomal spicules are diactins. Dermalia and atrialia are hexactins and pentactins. Microscleres are discohexasters, codonhexasters, calycodiscohexasters and graphiocomes.

Etymology

Feminine gender. Modi fi ed from the latin, ‘Advena’, meaning stranger, foreigner, alien, newcomer, guest, in reference to the sponge shape, which calls to mind aliens from various movies. An ‘h’ was added in ‘Advena’ ( Advhena ) to distinguish the name from that of the helicarionid gastropod Advena Gude, 1913 , in order to make sure there will be no overlapping with valid names.

Remarks

The new specimen cannot be accommodated in any of the currently accepted genera in the subfamily ( Table 2). It is clearly a long stalked Bolosominae individuum, with diactins as the main spicules, plus hexactins and pentactins. It is distinguished from other Bolosominae by the set of microscleres present, namely discasters, discohexasters, codonhexasters and derivatives, calycocomes, and graphiocomes, which render it unique among bolosomines, and justi fi es the proposal of a new genus.