Ircinia chupoensis, Lee & Yoo & Kim, 2017

Lee, Sue Yeon, Yoo, Jung Sun & Kim, Seung Tae, 2017, New species in two genera, Psammocinia and Ircinia (Demospongiae: Dictyoceratida: Irciniidae), from Korea, Journal of Species Research 6, pp. 94-109 : 101-107

10. Ircinia chupoensis n. sp. ( Fig. 10)

Type specimen. Holotype (NIBRIV0000754024), Korea: Chupodo, Yecho-ri, Chuja-myeon , Jeju-si , Jeju-do, 22 Aug 2002, Lee BI, by SCUBA diving, depth 15 m, deposited in the NIBR.

Description. Massive sponge, size up to 10 × 9 × 6 cm, divided to several parts at the top of the sponge. Surface has loose sand patches, not crust. Some parts of sponge have no sand. Oscules, 1.5-2 mm in diameter, opened at top of sponge. Colour in life, surface dark gray, beige inside. Texture, hard and incompressible.

Skeleton: Primary fibres, 200-300 μm in diameter, cored with dense, small sand particles. Secondary fibres, 80-100 μm in diameter, almost clear but rarely cored with small amounts of sand ( Fig. 10F). Filaments, 5 μm in diameter, with terminal knobs, 10 μm in diameter.

Etymology. This species is named after the type locality Chupodo, Jejudo Island.

Remark. This new species is easily distinguished by a very hard and incompressible sponge texture. Primary fibres cored with dense, small sand particles similar to species in the genus Psammocinia . Secondary fibres are very thick and rarely cored with sand. Numerous small sand particles spread over some parts of the secondary web as in species in the genus Psammocinia ; however, this new species has massive primary fibres fascicles ( Fig. 10D, G).