Anheteromeyenia cheguevarai, Manconi & Pronzato, 2005

Manconi, R. & Pronzato, R., 2005, Freshwater sponges of the West Indies: Discovery of Spongillidae (Haplosclerida, Spongillina) from Cuba with biogeographic notes and a checklist for the Caribbean area, Journal of Natural History 39 (36), pp. 3235-3253 : 3240-3242

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.1080/00222930500307327
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/039187A4-FF9F-503A-12DA-FEA9AFA6FB8C
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Anheteromeyenia cheguevarai
status

Treatment

Family SPONGILLIDAE Gray, 1867 View in CoL

Anheteromeyenia Schröder, 1927 Anheteromeyenia cheguevarai nov. sp.

( Figures 1 View Figure 1 , 2 View Figure 2 )

Material examined

Type material MSNG-52156. Three small encrusting sponges from a patch of gemmules on the same boulder, from the Embalse San Juan , locality Las Terrazzas in the neighbourhood of the village, Biosfera de la Sierra del Rosario, west Cuba, 13 December 2000, R. Manconi leg. Schizotypes as small fragments, slides and stubs labelled as DTRGFW601 are preserved in the author’s collection .

Diagnosis

Anheteromeyenia with a pneumatic layer shaped as a network of spongin fibres in the gemmular theca supported by radially arranged gemmuloscleres pseudobirotules of onedimensional class.

Description

Encrusting irregular sponges (2–5 cm in diameter, 1–2 mm thick). Colour pearl grey. Surface apparently smooth and velvet in living specimens. Oscules not conspicuous. Ectosomal skeleton as more or less tangential spicules with tips slightly emerging from the dermal membrane. Choanosomal skeleton irregularly reticulated isotropic, paucispicular. Megascleres oxeas (1052315×5215 Mm) straight to slightly bent, from covered by short spines except at the sharply pointed tips, to rarely smooth or flexuous ( Figure 2G View Figure 2 ). Oxeas sometimes with bifid, bent, or rounded tips. Microscleres absent. Gemmules brilliant grey at the sponge basis in a single compact layer strictly adherent to the well-developed basal spongin plate. Gemmules subspherical to oval (330–360 Mm in diameter) ( Figure 2A View Figure 2 ). Foramen with a developed tube at the middle of a depressed area supported by dense gemmuloscleres ( Figure 2B, E View Figure 2 ). Gemmular theca trilayered (35–60 Mm thickness) with gemmuloscleres arranged in a radial manner ( Figure 2D View Figure 2 ). Outer layer thick pierced by gemmulosclere shaft with emerging distal pseudorotules ( Figure 2C View Figure 2 ). Pneumatic layer as a thick network of spongin fibres with irregular rounded meshes ( Figure 2F View Figure 2 ). Inner layer of sublayered compact spongin ( Figure 2D View Figure 2 ). Gemmuloscleres pseudobirotules (50– 84 Mm in length) ( Figure 2H View Figure 2 ) with a shaft 3.6–4.5 Mm thick from smooth to ornate by 7–15 long acute spines mainly towards the distal part of shafts ( Figure 2I View Figure 2 ); pseudorotules (4.5– 14 Mm in diameter) with a conspicuous umbone bearing 6–11 smooth curved hooks ( Figure 2I View Figure 2 ).

Etymology

The species is named for Ernesto ‘‘Che’’ Guevara, the popular hero of Latino-America. Remarks

Only two other species are ascribed to the genus Anheteromeyenia , namely A. argirosperma (Potts, 1880) (type species), and A. ornata ( Bonetto and Ezcurra de Drago, 1970) . Manconi and Pronzato (2002) erroneously listed in the genus Anheteromeyenia also A. pictovensis ( Potts, 1885) and A. biceps (Lindenschmidt, 1950) , sharing diagnostic traits with the genus Racekiela . The specimen DTRGFW601 matches the genus Anheteromeyenia for megascleres acanthoxeas, short oxeas sometimes sigmoid, absence of microscleres, and gemmulosclere pseudobirotules radially arranged as redefined by Volkmer-Ribeiro (1996) and Manconi and Pronzato (2002). The comparison of morphological traits highlighted however that Anheteromeyenia cheguevarai nov. sp. diverges from the other two species of the genus in some main diagnostic traits: (1) ‘‘megascleres acanthoxeas gradually pointed’’ versus ‘‘acanthoxeas abruptly pointed’’; (2) ‘‘gemmuloscleres pseudobirotules of a single dimensional class’’ versus ‘‘gemmuloscleres pseudobirotules of two dimensional classes’’; (3) ‘‘pneumatic layer as a well developed network of spongin fibres’’ versus ‘‘pneumatic layer of irregularly chambered spongin’’. The analysis of the gemmular material by SEM of the trait ‘‘chambered pneumatic layer’’ versus ‘‘fibrous pneumatic layer’’ in the family Spongillidae strongly suggests its taxonomic value ( Manconi and Pronzato 2002).

Habitat

Specimens of Anheteromeyenia cheguevarai nov. sp. were found in a small lentic habitat (embalse) under boulders near the shoreline in shallow shaded quite brown waters at a depth of ca 40–60 cm.

Geographic distribution

The finding of Anheteromeyenia in Cuba matches the Nearctic and Neotropical geographic range of the genus with A. argyrosperma from Canada to Florida, and the Neotropical A. ornata from Brazil and Argentina ( Penney and Racek 1968; Bonetto and Ezcurra de Drago 1970; Frost 1991; Ricciardi and Reiswig 1993; Volkmer-Ribeiro 1996; Manconi and Pronzato 2002) ( Tables I, II).