identifier	taxonID	type	CVterm	format	language	title	description	additionalInformationURL	UsageTerms	rights	Owner	contributor	creator	bibliographicCitation
A855A503FFB1FF9E5299499B3B7BFE5C.text	A855A503FFB1FF9E5299499B3B7BFE5C.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Rhabderemia ginamaensis Ise & Tajiri & Mizuyama & Fujita 2025	<html xmlns:mods="http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3">
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            <p> Rhabderemia ginamaensis sp. nov. Ise, Mizuyama &amp; Fujita </p>
            <p>Figs. 1–3; Table 1</p>
            <p> Materials examined.   Holotype: NSMT-Po- 2509,  inside of submarine cave “Hedo Dome” ,  Ginama ,  Kunigami-son Village , Okinawa Island, the Ryukyu Islands, Japan, 12 m depth, 11 August 2016, coll. by Y. Ise, M. Mizuyama and Y. Fujita, SCUBA. </p>
            <p>Description of holotype. External morphology (Figs. 1A, B). Very thinly encrusting, covering the substrate (Fig.1A), ca. 400 µm thick in the preserved state. Surface with a thin membrane, semi-transparent in life due to the presence of inflated subdermal canals (Fig.1B) assembling into oscula forming an astrorhiza that shrinks when fixed. Color pale yellow-green to beige when alive, beige in ethanol.</p>
            <p>Skeleton (Fig. 1C). Skeletal structure hymedesmioid. Choanosomal larger rhabdostyle erect, singly or in bundles, perpenticularly penetrating to the surface with tips outwardly directed and blunt base embedded on the base. Thickness of sponge tissue less than length of chonosomal rhabdostyle. Ectosomal region unspecialized. Microscleres scattered throughout the sponge tissue.</p>
            <p>Spicules (Figs. 2, 3). Rhabdostyles as megascleres (Fig. 2). Microstyles, spirosigmas and microxeas as micrscleres (Fig. 3). Rhabdostyles, shaft straight, surface usually sparsely spined, smooth around the base. Tip sharply pointed, base usually single spiral or slightly curved (Fig. 2). Size in two categories. Larger rhabdostyles (Fig. 2A), 392.2–(436.8)–510.7 µm in length, 10.7–(14.7)–17.8 µm in shaft width. Smaller rhabdostyles in wide size range (Fig. 2B), 81.6–(212.1)–325.7 µm in length, 6.7–(12.1)–16.8 µm in shaft width. Rugose microstyles (Fig. 3A) curved, covered by fine spines (Fig. 3B). Size, 20–30 µm in length, 0.8–1.0 in base width, 0.5–0.8 µm in shaft width. Spirosigmas in two size classes (Figs. 3C, D). Larger spirosigmas (Fig. 3C), contorted, covered with fine spines. Size, 14.0–18.0 µm in total length, 1.2–1.8 µm in shaft width. Smaller spirosigmas (Fig. 3D), contorted, slightly centrotylote, usually rough and covered with tiny spines, except at centrotylote midpoint. Size, 9.0–11.0 µm in total length, 0.4–0.8 µm in shaft width. Microxeas (Fig. 3E) straight, sharply pointed at both tips. Size, 40–50 µm in length.</p>
            <p>Etymology. The species epithet refers to its type locality: Ginama.</p>
            <p> Origin of Japanese name. A new Japanese vernacular name: Ginama-kiseru-kaimen is proposed here. “Ginama” is its type locality. “Kiseru” is a smoking pipe in Japanese, derived from the shape of the rhabdostyle. “Kaimen” is sponge in Japanese. The Japanese names “Kiseru-kaimen-zoku” is proposed for the genus  Rhabderemia (“zoku” is genus in Japanese) and “Kiseru-kaimen-ka” for the family  Rhabderemiidae (“ka” is family in Japanese). </p>
            <p> Ecology. The type specimen was collected from the submarine cave “Hedo Dome” (Ginama,  Kunigami-son Village ), located near the northernmost point of Okinawa Island, the  Ryukyu Islands , Japan. Its entrance opens at the depth of 15–18 m and extends into the underground for about 53 m (Osawa &amp; Fujita, 2019). Most of the inner part of the cave is under anchialine habitat, where the species was found, and the type specimen was found covering the stalactite. No other specimens have been found from other submarine caves around Okinawa. </p>
            <p> Remarks. The presence of rhabdostyles, rugose microstyles, and spirosigmas best placed our specimen in the genus  Rhabderemia . To date, thirty species have been recorded for this genus (de Voogd et al., 2024). Of these, our specimen resembles  R. acanthostyla Thomas, 1968 (sensu Van Soest &amp; Hooper, 1993) and  R. forcipula in the presence of rhabdostyles, microstyles and two types of spirosigmas (for morphological variation of the sigmoid microscleres, see remarks on  R. forcipula in this paper). </p>
            <p> Rhabderemia acanthostyla was originally described from the Gulf of Mannar, the Indian Ocean (Thomas, 1968), and later found in Indonesia and Vietnam (Van Soest &amp; Hooper, 1993). Van Soest &amp; Hooper (1993) attributed their materials to the species based on the presence of “two sizes” of rhabdostyles. However, their interpretation may be incorrect because the rhabdostyles of  R. acanthostyla did not occur in two sizes but in two morphological types: rare smooth rhabdostyles and abundant spiny rhabdostyles (“acanthorhabdostyles” in Thomas, 1968). Furthermore, Thomas (1968) illustrated distinctive curved oxeote rhabdostyles of both types of rhabdostyles, which are not mentioned by Van Soest &amp; Hooper (1993). This latter study has reported also two sizes of “contorted sigmata” and microstyles, not mentioned by Thomas (1968), which they considered to have been overlooked by Thomas (1968). As Van Soest &amp; Hooper (1993) did not observe the type specimen, the records of  R. acanthostyla from Indonesia and Vietnam by Van Soest &amp; Hooper (1993) are possible different species from those of the Indian Ocean. </p>
            <p> Although  R. acanthostyla differs completely from  R. ginamaensis sp. nov. by the absence of microxeas, the specimens identified as  R. acanthostyla by Van Soest &amp; Hooper (1993) resemble  R. ginamaensis sp. nov. by the presence of two sizes of rhabdostyles, two types of spirosigmas, and the sizes of microstyles and spirosigmas (Table 1). However,  R. acanthostyla sensu Van Soest &amp; Hooper (1993) lacks microxeas and the dimensions of the rhabdostyles are much smaller than those of  R. ginamaensis sp. (Table 1). The color in life is an additional distinguishing feature: lighter or darker brown in Van Soest &amp; Hooper (1993) vs. pale yellow-green to beige in  R. ginamaensis sp. nov. which may reflect the difference in habitat that  R. acanthostyla sensu Van Soest &amp; Hooper (1993) grows in the open reef at 1–10 m depth, whereas  R. ginamaensis sp. nov. lives in the inner part of an anchialine submarine cave in total darkness with a low salinity of about 28 ppt (Osawa &amp; Fujita, 2019). </p>
            <p> Rhabderemia forcipula , redescribed in this study, is also comparable and considered a close species to  R. ginamaensis sp. nov. based on its spicule composition, taking into the account the possible morphological variation of larger sigmoid microscleres. However, the external morphology is completely different: massive to erect in  R. forcipula and thinly encrusting in  R. ginamaensis sp. nov. The sizes of the individual spicule types, rugose microstyles and spirosigmas, are much larger in  R. forcipula . In addition,  R. forcipula lacks microxeas. </p>
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	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/A855A503FFB1FF9E5299499B3B7BFE5C	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		MagnoliaPress via Plazi	Ise, Yuji;Tajiri, Rie;Mizuyama, Masaru;Fujita, Yoshihisa	Ise, Yuji, Tajiri, Rie, Mizuyama, Masaru, Fujita, Yoshihisa (2025): Submarine cave sponges of the genus Rhabderemia (Demospongiae, Biemnida, Rhabderemiidae) from the Ryukyu Islands, southwestern Japan: rediscovery of R. forcipula and description of a new species. Zootaxa 5569 (2): 365-382, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5569.2.8, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5569.2.8
A855A503FFB5FF945299489E3E8CF8D9.text	A855A503FFB5FF945299489E3E8CF8D9.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Rhabderemia forcipula (Levi & Levi 1989)	<html xmlns:mods="http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3">
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            <p> Rhabderemia forcipula (Lévi &amp; Lévi, 1989)</p>
            <p>Figs. 4–10; Table 2</p>
            <p> Rhabdosigma forcipula Lévi &amp; Lévi, 1989: 75–76 , text-fig. 43, pl VII, fig. 8. </p>
            <p> Rhabderemia forcipula : Van Soest &amp; Hooper, 1993: 335–336, Figs. 22–23, 33, 35, 40. </p>
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                 Type material examined.   Holotype: MNHN-IP- 2015-384 (previously registered as MNHN D CL 3242),  
                <a title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 120.333336/lat 13.916667)" href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=120.333336&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=13.916667">off Lubang Island</a>
                 , Philippines, 13º55′N, 120º20′E, 85–90 m depth, MUSORSTOM2 stat. 8, coll. by Philippe Bouchet, 12 November 1980 (Lévi &amp; Lévi, 1989). 
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            <p> Other materials examined.  All new materials came from “Akuma-no-Yakata” cave on  Shimoji Island (Miyako Island Group, the Ryukyu Islands, Japan) and were collected by Y. Ise, M. Mizuyama and Y. Fujita, using SCUBA. NSMT-Po- 2504, 20 m depth, 2 November 2014. NSMT-Po-2505, 16 m depth, 16 March 2013. NSMT-Po-2506, 20 m depth, 15 March 2013. NSMT-Po-2507, 20 m depth, 4 February 2017. NSMT-Po-2508, 20 m depth, 4 February 2017. </p>
            <p>Description of holotype. External morphology can be seen on website of Muséum National D’Hisoire Naturelle (http://mediaphoto.mnhn.fr/media/1446200223006kuXFc7dh3aWahWDI). Sponge with three to four digitate branches. Each branch almost straight or curved, tapering to a blunt tip. Surface finely hispid due to protruding megascleres. Color reddish brown in alcohol. Maximum branch diameter 8–10 mm.</p>
            <p>Skeleton. Exact morphology of skeletal arrangement in ectosome not clearly observed due to fine debris covered on fragment of holotype. The overall choanosomal skeleton plumo-reticulate.</p>
            <p>Spicules (Figs. 4, 5). Rhabdostyles (Fig. 4A), shaft straight or slightly curved, surface smooth, sharply pointed. Size, 270.4–(325.1)–371.6 µm in length, 7.3–(15.4)–19.6 µm in shaft width. Rugose microstyles (Fig. 4B), thin, slender, slightly curved, covered with sharp spines, densely distributed at the base (Fig. 4C), sparsely around the sharp tip (Fig. 4D). Spines ca. 0.4–0.5 µm long, sharply pointed and disposed up right at base. Size, 143–(166.1)–178 µm in length, 1.5–(2.3)–3.0 in base width, 1.2–(1.8)–2.4 µm in shaft width. Some microstyles lack spines, forming a smooth, slender, and slightly curved shaft with a sharply pointed tip (Figs. 4E, F). Thraustosigmas (Fig. 5A), Cshaped, shaft smooth around midpoint and microspined near both apices. Size, 26–(29.6)–37 µm in total length, 2.3–(3.1)–4.3 µm in shaft width. Spirosigmas (Fig. 5B), irregular S-shaped, shaft contorted, slightly centrotylote, covered with minute spines. Spines relatively larger near both apices. Size, 13–(16.1)–22 µm in total length, 0.8– (1.3)–2.0 µm in shaft width.</p>
            <p>Description of submarine cave specimens. External morphology (Fig. 6). Multiple short lobes or finely divided branches, connected at the base or laterally, forming a fragmented mass about 33–48 mm high and 40–50 cm wide (Fig. 6A )). Each branch 4.0–10.0 mm in diameter, slightly undulated, sometimes dichotomous, tapering to a blunt or subspherical tip (Figs. 6B–D). Color pale lemon yellow to cream in life, and cream in ethanol. Texture corky and compressible in preserved state. Surface semi-transparent in life due to the presence of a thin membrane and an inflated subdermal canal (Figs. 6C–D), which assembles into oscula (Fig. 6B) that shrinks when disturbed or on fixation. Surface of preserved specimen finely hispid due to vertically protruding rhabdostyles (Figs. 7A, B).</p>
            <p>Skeleton (Fig. 7). Ectosomal and choanosomal skeleton indistinguishable and plumo-reticulate (Fig. 7A). Plumose rhabdosyle tracts ascending to the surface (Figs. 7A, B), vertically penetrating up to one spicule long (Fig. 7B). Ascending rhabdostyle tracts usually connected by radially arranged spicules of one spicule long. Rhabdosyles roughly arranged radially and connected by the spiral blunt end of the spicule. A unit of such radially arranged rhabdostyles connected to other units by one spicule long, forming an isodictyal mesh-like structure (Figs. 7C–D).</p>
            <p>Spicules (Figs. 8–10). Rhabdostyles (Fig. 8A), shaft straight, surface smooth around base, number of spines gradually increasing from base to sharp tip. Size variable, 154.2–(287.4)–408.5 µm in length, 8.3–(12.8)–19.3 µm in shaft width. Rugose microstyles (Fig. 8B), thin, slender, slightly curved near base, shaft covered with tiny spines about 0.4–0.5 µm long (Figs. 8C–E). Spines sharply pointed and densely distributed at base (Fig. 8C), almost densely distributed asround axis (Fig. 8D) and sparsely distributed around sharp tip (Fig. 8E). Size, 124.0–(147.8)–174.5 µm in length, 1.2–(1.8)–2.3 µm in base width, 1.2–(1.4)–1.6 µm in shaft width. Smooth microstyles rarely present. Sigmoid microscleres in two size classes (Figs. 9A, B). Larger sigmoid microscleres (Fig. 9A), thraustosigmas and spirosigmas of similar size, rough surface, covered with tiny spines, spines larger near apices. Size, 19.6–(24.8)– 30.5 µm in total length. 1.6–(2.2)–2.7 µm in shaft width. The number of spirosigmas varies between submarine cave specimens; rare in specimens NSMT-Po-2506 and NSMT-Po-2508 with abundant thraustosigmas, and abundant in specimen NSMT-Po-2504 without thraustosigmas (Fig. 10A). Undeveloped young spirosigmas with thin and smooth shaft also present (Fig. 9A). Smaller sigmoid microscleres (Figs. 9B, 10B), spirosigmas, contorted, slightly centrotylote, surface rough, covered with tiny spines except at centrotylote part. Size, 14.3–(17.6)–22.1 µm in total length, less than 1 µm in shaft width. Spicule measurements of all analyzed specimens given in Table 2.</p>
            <p>Origin of Japanese name. A new Japanese vernacular name: “Kurayami-kiseru-kaimen” is proposed here. “Kurayami” is darkness in Japanese, referring to its habitat. “Kiseru” is a smoking pipe in Japanese, derived from the shape of the rhabdostyle. “Kaimen” is sponge in Japanese.</p>
            <p>Ecology. Type specimens were collected from off Lubang Island, southwest of Manila, Philippines, at a depth of 85–90 m (Lévi &amp; Lévi, 1989). Newly collected specimens were found in the submarine cave “Akuma-no-Yakata”, located on the west side of Shimoji Island (Miyako Island Group, the Ryukyu Islands, Japan). It opens the entrance in the edge of the island and then extends into the underground of the island for about 110 m (Osawa &amp; Fujita, 2019). The inner part of the cave is under anchialine habitat. This species lives exclusively in total darkness at the depth of 15–32 m in the studied submarine cave and has not been found so far in other submarine caves around Okinawa.</p>
            <p> Remarks. Hooper (2002) divided  Rhabderemia species into two groups based on their skeletal structure. Our specimens belong to the group of species bearing plumo-reticulate skeletal structure. Among these, the newly collected sponges resemble  R. forcipula in spicule categories present and their measurements (Table 2). </p>
            <p> After examining the holotype of  R. forcipula for the first time in this study and redescription of the paratypes by Van Soest &amp; Hooper (1993), we found some differences or variations between type specimens and submarine cave specimens, which are (1) color in ethanol: reddish brown in type specimens (Lévi &amp; Lévi, 1989; Van Soest &amp; Hooper, 1993) vs cream in submarine cave specimens; (2) surface of rhabdostyles: smooth or slightly spined in type specimens (Lévi &amp; Lévi, 1989; Van Soest &amp; Hooper, 1993) vs. spined in submarine cave specimens (Fig. 8A). An important variation is the presence of thraustosigmas, which is always observed in all type specimens (Van Soest &amp; Hooper, 1993; Fig. 5A in this study), but is rare or absent in some submarine cave specimens. In such cases, larger spirosigmas (Fig. 10A) appear to be an alternative to thraustosigmas. In specimens of NSMT-Po-2506 and NSMT- Po-2508, both thraustosigmas and larger spirosigmas were present, with the majority being thraustosigmas (Fig. 10A). The definition of spicule morphology is crucial for sponge identification, however, as for thraustosigmas and spirosigmas in the case of  R. forcipula , the two spicule types may have same origin. </p>
            <p> Morphological variation in spicules has been noted in sponges found from both shallow submarine caves and the deep-sea or mesophotic zone. According to Cárdenas &amp; Rapp (2013), lower silica concentrations in shallow waters are expected to affect mainly on immature sterrasters of sponges belonging to the family  Geodiidae . Cárdenas et al. (2018) expected that the difference in silica concentration would also affect the morphological variation of spicules in shallow-water submarine caves. Furthermore, even in the same submarine cave, there was a report of high frequency of malformations affecting on siliceous spicules of sponges depending on each part of the cave (Harmelin et al., 2003). This type of spicule malformation has been reported for  R. toxigera Topsent, 1892 , although the exact character of the malformation was not mentioned (Harmelin et al., 2003). Pisera &amp; Vacelet (2011) reported variation in both external morphology and spicule characters for  Discodermia polymorpha Pisera &amp; Vacelet, 2011 , and suggested that polymorphism could be related to differences in cave environment: between caves or between different parts of caves. </p>
            <p> In this study, we could not find clear morphological features to distinguish our submarine cave specimens from the type specimens of  R. forcipula , considering the morphological variation of the spicules: rhabdostyles and spirosigmas/thraustorigmas. In spite of our inability to spot any clear malformation in the spicules of our submarine cave specimens (Figs 9, 10), the unique environment of the submarine cave may have some influence on the morphological variation of the microscleres, as suggested by Pisera &amp; Vacelet (2011) and Cárdenas et al. (2018). Thus, we decided to consider our submarine cave specimens as a phenotype of  R. forcipula , the species once collected from the mesophotic zone of the Philippines (Lévi &amp; Lévi, 1989), assuming that the species has a morphological variation of spicules: rhabdostyles and spirosigmas/thraustorigmas. </p>
            <p> Considering the morphological variation of microscleres,  Rhabderemia mammiliata (Whitelegee, 1907) from southern Australia is comparable to our submarine cave specimens by the presence of thraustosigmas as the larger sigmoid microscleres and the size of rhabdostyles. However,  R. mammilata lacks microstyles and has much smaller spirosigmas of the smaller categories (9–13 µm) (Whitelegee, 1907; Hallmann, 1916, 1917; Van Soest &amp; Hooper, 1993). </p>
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	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/A855A503FFB5FF945299489E3E8CF8D9	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		MagnoliaPress via Plazi	Ise, Yuji;Tajiri, Rie;Mizuyama, Masaru;Fujita, Yoshihisa	Ise, Yuji, Tajiri, Rie, Mizuyama, Masaru, Fujita, Yoshihisa (2025): Submarine cave sponges of the genus Rhabderemia (Demospongiae, Biemnida, Rhabderemiidae) from the Ryukyu Islands, southwestern Japan: rediscovery of R. forcipula and description of a new species. Zootaxa 5569 (2): 365-382, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5569.2.8, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5569.2.8
