Dictyoplax, Reiswig & Dohrmann, 2014

Reiswig, Henry M. & Dohrmann, Martin, 2014, Three new species of glass sponges (Porifera: Hexactinellida) from the West Indies, and molecular phylogenetics of Euretidae and Auloplacidae (Sceptrulophora), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 171 (2), pp. 233-253 : 245

GENUS DICTYOPLAX GEN. NOV.

Diagnosis: Auloplacidae with body form as a widely spread funnel attached to hard substratum by a short central stalk; a network of marginal atrial grooves or dermal ridges develop into a network of tubules by closure of the grooves atrially. The tubules are all interconnected by a branching and anastomosing lumen system, but share the common two-dimensional atrial surface of the whole specimen. Spicules consist of surficial pentactine and tyloscopule megascleres, uncinates, oxyhexasters, and their variant microscleres.

Type species: Dictyoplax lecus sp. nov.

Etymology: The genus name, ‘ Dictyoplax ’, is formed from ‘ diktyon ’, Gk for net, and ‘ plax ’, Gk for plate; the gender is masculine.

Remarks: The new species described below cannot be assigned to the only recent genus of the family, Auloplax , because of the differences in its method of tubule formation, in its body form, and in spicules from the three known species of that genus. Erection of a new monospecific genus is thus required to enable the placement of the new species in the present Linnean classification system of the Hexactinellida. Dictyoplax lecus gen. et sp. nov. extends the known geographic range of family Auloplacidae to the north-west Atlantic region; the taxon was so far only known from the north-east Atlantic and New Zealand waters ( Reiswig, 2002b; Reiswig & Kelly, 2011).