New records of Indo-Pacific sponges from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands India
Author
Pereira, Preeti
Andaman and Nicobar Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, Haddo- 744 102, Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India.
Author
Raghunathan, Chelladurai
Andaman and Nicobar Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, Haddo- 744 102, Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. & Zoological Survey of India, M-Block, New Alipore- 700 053, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
text
Zootaxa
2020
2020-12-08
4894
4
81
97
journal article
9308
10.11646/zootaxa.4894.1.4
56f8a697-33e1-4ece-8e49-e8bf44fb34ef
1175-5326
4315490
2F3A5F52-6DDC-4472-8083-9DDE42BBA5FE
Dragmacidon australe
(
Bergquist, 1970
)
(
Figures 4
A–D)
Synonymy:
Pseudaxinella australis
Bergquist, 1970: 20
: 20
, Pl 4c, 12c.
Dragmacidon australe
(
Bergquist, 1970
)
:
Alvarez & Hooper, 2009: 27
, fig. 7 C–D, 9 A–B; Alvarez, Voogd, & Van Soest, 2016: 457–459, fig. 5.
Material examined:
1 specimen
, ZSI/ANRC–19927,
March 19, 2018
, Bus Stop,
Neil Island
, Ritchie’s Archipelago,
Coll. Preeti Pereira.
Description:
Thickly encrusting (
Fig. 4A
),
5 cm
in diameter and
3 cm
thick; deep red in colour when alive and
on preservation (
Fig. 4B
); consistency hard and incompressible; surface brush-like with slightly short and broad conules; oscules conspicuous;
2–4mm
in diameter.
Skeleton: The skeleton is made up of thick multi-spicular tracts and forms irregular oval or circular meshes, measuring
100–400 µm
in diameter (
Fig. 4C
). Primary fibres thick, measuring
50–80 µm
, densely interspersed with spicules; secondary fibres sparse.
FIGURE 4.
Dragmacidon australe
(
Bergquist, 1970
)
(ZSI/ANRC–19927):
A,
in situ
photograph.
B,
preserved specimen.
C,
tangential view of the skeleton.
D,
styles and oxeas.
Spicules: Styles and oxeas (
Fig. 4D
).
Oxeas smooth and sharply pointed, 128.9–322.7–373.7 × 2.9–10.1–17.0 µm.
Styles thin and slightly curved, 267.6–305.2–351.3 × 4.2–7.7–
14.3 µm
.
Distribution:
Originally described from
New Zealand
, Temperate Australasia realm by
Bergquist (1970)
,
Dragmacidon australe
was subsequently recorded from Northern Great Barrier Reef, Northern
Australia
,
Cartier Island
, Sahul Shelf of the Northeast Australian Shelf and Sahul Shelf provinces in the Central Indo-Pacific realm (Hooper & Levi 1993).
Alvarez & Hooper (2009)
extended the distribution range of this species to the Northern
Australia
in their revision of Axinellids and stated that it is “probably at the edge of its range”. However, its distribution was further extended towards the Western Coral Triangle and possibly to Sunda Shelf in the Central Indo-Pacific realm (
Alvarez
et al.
2016
). The current report confirms its extension into the Andaman province of the West Indo-Pacific realm.
Remarks
: At present,
Dragmacidon australe
is known from a single specimen from Ritchie’s Archipelago in the Andaman Islands. This specimen examined herein was found to be very similar to the species described from
New Zealand
by
Bergquist (1970)
.