Paraleucilla Dendy

Azevedo, Fernanda & Klautau, Michelle, 2007, Calcareous sponges (Porifera, Calcarea) from Ilha Grande Bay, Brazil, with descriptions of three new species, Zootaxa 1402, pp. 1-22 : 7

Genus Paraleucilla Dendy

Type species— Leucandra cucumis Haeckel, 1872 (by monotypy).

Diagnosis — Amphoriscidae with leuconoid organization. The thick wall is divided into two regions. The outer region is supported by the skeleton, which remains essentially inarticulated, with the apical actines of cortical tetractines pointed inwards, and a layer of triactines and/or tetractines with the unpaired actine pointed outwards. The inner region of the choanoskeleton is intercalated between the original subatrial skeleton and the atrial one. This region is supported by large triactines and/or tetractines, which are scattered in disarray, and whose form is similar to the spicules found in the outer layer of the choanoskeleton or inside the atrial skeleton. Since the original subatrial layer still remains in the outer part of the choanosome, facing the cortical tetractines, there are no typical subatrial spicules adjacent to the atrial skeleton ( Borojevic et al. 2002b).