Acanthopolymastia Kelly­Borges & Bergquist, 1997

Plotkin, Alexander S. & Janussen, Dorte, 2008, Polymastiidae and Suberitidae (Porifera: Demospongiae: Hadromerida) of the deep Weddell Sea, Antarctic *, Zootaxa 1866, pp. 95-135 : 98

Genus Acanthopolymastia Kelly­Borges & Bergquist, 1997

Diagnosis (emended from Boury­Esnault 2002): Sponges are cushion­shaped or discoid, with a single low oscular papilla. The edge of the body is very hispid whereas the other part of the surface is only minutely hispid. The choanosomal skeleton is composed by tracts of tylostyles, subtylostyles or styles which project beyond the surface making up the hispidation. The cortical skeleton includes a palisade of small tylostyles. Acanthose microxeas are very abundant both in cortex and choanosome.

Emendations proposed: 1) Spicules of the choanosomal tracts may be styles. 2) In all known Acanthopolymastia spp. the surface is hispid to a greater or lesser degree (see Kelly­Borges & Bergquist 1997). This hispidation is constituted by the choanosomal tracts projecting beyond the whole surface but not exclusively at the edge as given in Systema Porifera ( Boury­Esnault 2002). Moreover, the excess edge hispidation shared by A. acanthoxa ( Koltun, 1964) and A. pisiformis ( Lévi, 1993) is not found in A. bathamae Kelly­Borges & Bergquist, 1997 .

Type species: Atergia acanthoxa Koltun, 1964 (by original designation).