Protosuberites Swartschewsky, 1905

Kelly, Michelle & Rowden, Ashley A., 2019, New sponge species from hydrothermal vent and cold seep sites off New Zealand, Zootaxa 4576 (3), pp. 401-438 : 418

Genus Protosuberites Swartschewsky, 1905

Protosuberites Swartschewsky, 1905: 36 .

Laxosuberites sensu Topsent, 1938: 20 .

Type species. Protosuberites prototipus Swartschewsky, 1905: 36 , pl. VI fig. 5 .

Diagnosis. Thinly to more massively encrusting sponges with a velvety or microhispid surface. Oscular veins often prominently visible. The surface skeleton consists of brushes of tylostyles, which are often somewhat smaller than those of the choanosome. Choanosomal skeleton consists variably of single spicules erect on the substrate, or bundles running from the substrate to the surface, usually parallel to each other without any form of anastomosing ( Van Soest 2002).

Remarks. Protosuberites was revived by Van Soest (2002) to take the place of Laxosuberites sensu Topsent (1938) which was extended to include thinly encrusting sponges with bundles of spicules in the choanosome and ectosomal brushes (see Van Soest [2002: 235] for an in-depth discussion). In thickly encrusting sponges with digitate processes, the choanosomal tracts are often orientated along the axis of the process, giving the impression of compression of the axis, and the divergence and termination of these tracts under the ectosome often give the impression of an ‘extra-axial’ system, as in Plicatellopsis Burton, 1932 . However, the skeleton is not the same as in species of Plicatellopsis which have strictly compressed axes of anastomosing tracts in a stalk, from which extends a clear extra-axial skeleton in branches or fans.