New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts
Taxonomy of some Halisarcida and Homosclerophorida
(Porifera: Demospongiae) from the Indo-Pacific
Patricia R. Bergquist†
Department of Anatomy
Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences
University of Auckland
Private Bag 92 019
Auckland, New Zealand
email: pr.bergquist@auckland.ac.nz
†Author for correspondence.
Michelle Kelly
National Centre for Aquatic Biodiversity &
Biosecurity
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric
Research Limited
Private Bag 109 695, Newmarket
Auckland, New Zealand
Abstract Several sponges with a thin encrusting
form and of fragile construction have been collected
in the Indo-Pacific, and have proved difficult to differentiate,
let alone identify, without recourse to
electron microscopy. Here we re-describe Halisarca
melana de Laubenfels, 1954 from Palau, and H.
metabola de Laubenfels, 1954 from Majuro Atoll in
the Marshall Islands from new material, emphasising
field characters such as coloration in life, surface
features, and histological details accessible by light
microscopy. Using similar characters two new species
of Halisarca, H. ferreus sp. nov., from Zanzibar,
Tanzania, and H. cerebrum sp. nov., from Palau,
are recognised and described. Another genus belonging
to a different subclass of Demospongiae also has
fragile construction and encrusting growth form; this
is Oscarella, and two new species of this genus are
also described, O. stillans sp. nov. from the Philippines,
and O. nigraviolacea sp. nov., from Pemba
Island, Tanzania.
Keywords Porifera; Demospongiae; Homosclerophorida;
Halisarcida; Halisarca; Oscarella; Palau
marine lake; Tanzania; Philippines; new species
M03048; Online publication date 15 March 2004; Received 25 August 2003; accepted
3 November 2003
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2004, Vol. 38:
51-66
0028-8330/04/3801-0051© The Royal Society of New Zealand 2004
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