Sycantha Lendenfeld, 1891

Borojevic, Radovan, Boury-Esnault, Nicole & Vacelet, Jean, 2000, A revision of the supraspecific classification of the subclass Calcaronea (Porifera, class Calcarea), Zoosystema 22 (2), pp. 203-263 : 228

Genus Sycantha Lendenfeld, 1891

TYPE SPECIES. — Sycantha tenella Lendenfeld, 1891 by monotypy.

DIAGNOSIS. — Sycanthidae that have fused radial tubes with free distal cones decorated by diactine spicules.

DESCRIPTION

Only Lendenfeld (1891) observed Sycantha tenella from a specimen collected in the northern part of the Adriatic Sea, and he gave quite a detailed description of this species. Tenthrenodes antarcticum (Jenkin, 1908) is similar to pedunculate small Sycon species ; the description of the linked type of radial tubes is not fully convincing, and following Dendy & Row (1913) we propose to keep it in the genus Sycon . As pointed out by Dendy & Row (1913), the sponge described as Tenthrenodes scotti Jenkin, 1908 has tangential spicules at the distal parts of the radial tubes. This species has the organization typical of the Sycanthidae and belongs to the genus Dermatreton as we understand it now. Sycantha (Hypodictyon) longstaffi (Jenkin, 1908) is apparently one of the typical representatives of the genus. As discussed under the family Staurorrhaphidae , the presence of the subatrial spicules with a lone centrally directed apical actine, is common in many Leucosoleniida , and does not merit the separation of the genus Hypodictyon from Sycantha .