Stelligeridae Von Lendenfeld, 1898

Sim-Smith, Carina, Hickman, Cleveland & Kelly, Michelle, 2021, New shallow-water sponges (Porifera) from the Galápagos Islands, Zootaxa 5012 (1), pp. 1-71 : 32

Family Stelligeridae Von Lendenfeld, 1898

Genus Higginsia Higgin, 1877

Diagnosis. Growth forms erect, lamellate, massive, vasiform or lobate; surface conulose, papillose, often silt covered or membraneous. Choanosomal skeleton predominantly with an elaborate system of bundles of megascleres, although skeletal structure ranges from halichondroid with a partially compressed, reticulate axis, and an irregularly plumo-reticulate extra-axial region ( Higginsia ), a compressed axis and a radial, non-plumose extra-axial region ( Dendropsis ), to a lax plumose or plumo-reticulate structure, without axial compression or regional differentiation of the skeleton ( Desmoxya ); spongin fibres usually poorly developed although heavy collagen forms the mesohyl, usually with numerous megascleres and microscleres scattered between main skeletal tracts; all skeletal tracts cored by robust oxeas and/or styles, or sometimes modified further to strongylote megascleres with bifurcated points. Ectosome with a protruding extra-axial skeleton composed of longer oxeas and/or styles of 1–3 sizes. Microscleres spined, centrangulate curved or straight microxeas, and sometimes also raphides occurring singly or in bundles (trichodragmata) (from Hooper 2002a).