Metania Gray, 1867

Manconi, Renata, Cadeddu, Barbara & Pronzato, Roberto, 2015, Adaptive morpho-traits, taxonomy and biogeography of Metania Gray, 1867 (Porifera: Spongillina: Metaniidae) with the description of a new species from Madagascar, Zootaxa 3918 (1), pp. 39-56 : 45

Genus Metania Gray, 1867

Synonymies. Acalle Gray, 1867 , partim; Parametania Brien, 1968 ; Potamolepis Marshall, 1883 , partim; Spongilla L., 1759, partim; Tubella Carter, 1881 , partim) ( Table 1)

Diagnosis (emended from Manconi & Pronzato 2002). Metaniidae with body shape bulbous, massive to encrusting. Consistency firm to hard, brittle. Choanosomal skeleton alveolate-reticulate with pauci- to multispicular tracts. Spongin scanty. Megascleres of two dimensional classes from large (α) to small (β), from oxeas to strongyles, from spiny to smooth; β megascleres absent or not reported in some cases. Microscleres, acanthoxeas sometimes with blunt tips (acanthostrongyles?), to pseudobirotules variably bent (previously also named chelae). Gemmules ovoid to subspherical, scattered in the skeletal network or at the sponge basal portion, enclosed in a variably developed cage of megascleres. Gemmular theca trilayered and gemmuloscleres radially embedded. Pneumatic layer as a network of trabecules-fibres of spongin. Gemmuloscleres boletiform (trumpet-like) with variable shaft length and ornamentation (spines, tubercles, hooks).