Leucandrilla aff. intermedia ( Row, 1909 )

Van, Rob W. M. & De, Nicole J., 2018, Calcareous sponges of the Western Indian Ocean and Red Sea, Zootaxa 4426 (1), pp. 1-160 : 103-105

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.4426.1.1
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:18929E20-5296-4458-8A8A-4F5316A290FD
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5966742
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/386CC616-DC14-A558-FF67-8B6CFC14FEFC
treatment provided by	Plazi
scientific name	Leucandrilla aff. intermedia ( Row, 1909 )
status

Treatment

Leucandrilla aff. intermedia ( Row, 1909) View in CoL

Figs 62a–c View FIGURE 62 , 63a–h View FIGURE 63

? Leucilla intermedia Row, 1909: 205 , pl. 20 fig.7, textfig. 5.

Leucandra infesta Dendy & Row, 1913: 771 View in CoL .

Material examined. ZMA Por. 13482, Israel, Gulf of Aqaba, Schuhmacher’s Pinnacle , depth 2 m, under dead Acropora , coll. M. Wunsch, field nr. AQ 126, 10 July 1998.

Description. Spiny-hairy, light green tube ( Fig. 62a View FIGURE 62 ) attached partially sideways to the substratum. Size 1.5 cm in length and approximately 1 cm in diameter. Terminal oscule naked, 3 mm in diameter. In alcohol ( Fig. 62b View FIGURE 62 ) the specimen is dirty white. Consistency firm.

Aquiferous system. Syllebeid.

Skeleton. ( Fig. 62c View FIGURE 62 ) In cross section, the skeleton of the wall shows a cortical layer of small triactines pierced by giant diactines, subcortical skeleton of sagittal large tetractines, choanosomal and subatrial giant, intermediate and small triactines and tetractines, and atrial sagittal triactines and tetractines. The oscular collar contains trichoxeas.

Spicules. ( Figs 63a–h View FIGURE 63 ) Diactines, triactines, tetractines, trichoxeas,

Giant diactines ( Figs 63a,a View FIGURE 63 1 View FIGURE 1 ) fusiform, tapering to thin points, more or less equiended, 1000– 2313 –4680 x 24 – 44.3 –50 µm

Cortical triactines ( Fig. 63b View FIGURE 63 ), slightly sagittal, but equiactinal, 81– 114 –141 x 7.5– 9.3 –11 µm

Subcortical large tetractines ( Fig. 63c View FIGURE 63 ) with apical actines longest and protruding into the choanosome, with unpaired actines 225– 276 –405 x 18 –28.1–44 µm, paired actines 152– 238 –324 x 15 –21.6–30 µm, and apical actines 37– 184 –390 x 9 – 21.0 –42 µm.

Large triactines ( Fig. 63d View FIGURE 63 ) and intermediate forms from the choanosomal and subatrial region, slightly sagittal, 165– 364 –570 x 15 – 30.9 –51 µm.

Large tetractines ( Fig. 63e View FIGURE 63 ) from the choanosomal and subatrial region, slightly sagittal, unpaired actines 129– 227 –345 x 15 – 22.5 –34 µm, paired actines 153– 249 –324 x 12 – 17.8 –24 µm, apical actines 37– 53 – 62 x 8 – 14.3 –19 µm

Atrial triactines ( Fig. 63f View FIGURE 63 ), sagittal, unpaired actines 63– 137 –181 x 7 – 8.8 –11 µm, paired actines 141– 161 –174 x 6 – 8.6 –12 µm.

Atrial tetractines ( Fig. 63g View FIGURE 63 ), sagittal, with thin sharp apical actines, unpaired actines 96– 119 –148 x 10 –12.0–16 µm, paired actines 123– 154 –186 x 10 – 10.8 –14 µm, apical actines 15– 26.3 – 37 x 6 – 8.3 –12 µm.

Trichoxeas ( Fig. 63h View FIGURE 63 ), invariably broken, 800– 1000 x 3 –3.5 µm.

Distribution and ecology. Red Sea, shallow depth.

Remarks. The above-described specimen conforms in most details to Row’s description and figures of specimens from Suez. There are slight discrepancies in the spicule sizes, but these are rather generalized in Row’s treatment, so this is of not much concern. In contrast to Row’s description there are triactines among the atrial spicules in our specimen, which throws some doubt on our identification, hence our assignment to aff. intermedia . It cannot be excluded that our material belongs to a different closely similar species.

Dendy & Row’s (1913) new name Leucandra infesta for the secondary homonymy of Row’s Leucilla intermedia with Haeckel’s (1872) Leucetta paradoxa var. intermedia has become moot, because the two species involved are now reassigned to different genera. Since the replacement name L. infesta was only used once in Burton’s (1963) summary of Row’s description, which does not count as ‘use’ in the sense of ICZN art. 59.3, the name L. intermedia is reinstated.

Unfortunately, we were unable to obtain partial 28S sequence data. To investigate the likely position of the genus Leucandrilla in our phylogeny of Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 , we obtained sequences of a Leucandrilla spec. (GenBank acc.nrs. MF872768 View Materials , MF872769 View Materials , MF872770 View Materials and MF872771 View Materials ) from the Galapagos Islands. We included these in a separate analysis of the combined Galapagos and all other Calcaronea sequences, with the result that the Galapagos Leucandrilla grouped in the same clade with the above mentioned Leucandra sequences, at a low bootstrap value (42%). We do not show this result because we did not obtain Western Indian Ocean or Red Sea sequences of Leucandrilla to compare them with, but mention this examination to confirm that Leucandrilla and Leucandra are likely more closely related to each other than either is to other Calcaronea.