Tsitsikamma Samaai & Kelly, 2002

Samaai, Toufiek, Kelly, Michelle, Ngwakum, Benedicta, Payne, Robyn, Teske, Peter R., Janson, Liesl, Kerwath, Sven, Parker, Denham & Gibbons, Mark J., 2020, New Latrunculiidae (Demospongiae, Poecilosclerida) from the Agulhas ecoregion of temperate southern Africa, Zootaxa 4896 (3), pp. 409-442 : 417

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.4896.3.4
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:FD238C7C-E3F8-408B-9711-9A0BFFF69692
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4391110
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/0A5787DE-A975-FFC2-FF5C-6C4EFE9191FE
treatment provided by	Plazi
scientific name	Tsitsikamma Samaai & Kelly, 2002
status

Treatment

Subgenus Tsitsikamma Samaai & Kelly, 2002 View in CoL

Type species. Tsitsikamma favus Samaai and Kelly, 2002: 718 View in CoL ; fig. 6A–G.

Diagnosis. Tsitsikamma species that are thickly encrusting to hemispherical attached to the substratum through a common base; have a rigid, thick honeycomb chamber like choanosome reinforced by very large, thick anisostyles. The isochiadiscorhabd microscleres are large, having a thick shaft and three sets of cylindrical-conical tubercles protruding from the shaft.

Remarks. We herewith establish the nominotypical subgenus Tsitsikamma subgen. nov. Samaai and Kelly, 2002, for the species T. favus , T. scurra , T. nguni Parker-Nance, 2019 and T. amatholensis sp. nov., based on the possession of dense megasclere tracts that form a rigid, honeycomb-like structure, with chambers visible to the unaided eye.