Plicatellopsis ramosa, Kim & Sim, 2021

Kim, Young A & Sim, Chung Ja, 2021, Ten new species of families Suberitidae and Polymastiidae (Demospongia: Heteroscleromorpha) from Korea, Journal of Species Research 10 (2), pp. 168-183 : 169

1. Plicatellopsis ramosa n. sp. ( Fig. 1 )

ḣnjãƞṻṉflãḁḍ (ṳḋ)

Type specimen. Holotype (NIBRIV0000881725), Korea: Hangaechang, Seogwi-dong, Seogwipo-si , Jeju-do, 21 Oct 2013, by SCUBA, depth 45 m, deposited in NIBR.

Description. Thickly ramose sponge, dichotomously divided into a three-dimensional branches. Size up to 21 cm height and 12 cm wide. End of branches are not sharp but rather blunt, 5-8 mm in diameter. Thick short stalk attached to the substrate. Surface smooth and velvety with spicules. Oscules open out of branches, 0.5-1 mm in diameter. Color in life orange red, yellowish beige in alcohol. Texture firm and not easy to cut because central axial skeleton has bundle of large tylostyles, forming the central core of the each branch of the sponge ( Fig. 1G, H ).

Skeleton: Ectosomal skeleton, a dense palisade of small and large tylostyles, 300-500 × 5-10 μm. Central axial skeleton, a dense of mass of aligned spicules bundles, 2.5 mm in diameter. Axial large tylostyles, 800-1200 × 20- 30 μm.

Etymology. The species name, ramosa, is named after the branch shape of the sponge.

Remarks. This new species is similar to Plicatellapsis arborescens Burton in the ramose shape of sponge, but differs in the size of spicules. Large tylotyles in central axial of this new species are thicker than P. arborescens .

Figures

Fig. 1. Plicatellopsis ramosa n. sp.A, external morphology in situ; B, external morphology; C, D, surface and subsurface spicules; E, F, tylostyles; G, bundle of spicuels; H, spicules bundle in center of branch. Scale bars:A =3 cm, B=2.5 cm, C-E=100 μm, F, G =50 μm.