Dysidea fragilis ( Montagu, 1818 ) sensu Bergquist (1961b)

Mc Cormack, Samuel P., Kelly, Michelle & Battershill, Christopher N., 2020, Description of two new species of Dysidea (Porifera, Demospongiae, Dictyoceratida Dysideidae) from Tauranga Harbour, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, Zootaxa 4780 (3), pp. 523-542 : 539

Dysidea fragilis ( Montagu, 1818) sensu Bergquist (1961b)

Bergquist (1961b) applied the name fragilis to poorly described material from Mernoo Bank on the Chatham Rise: the sponge was irregular, about 5 cm long and 3 cm wide, with cylindrical projections arising from a basal mass. The fibres were relatively thick, being 150–340 µm wide with secondary fibres 35–48 µm thick, and the colour, presumably in life, brownish grey (after Bergquist 1961b). Application of the species name fragilis to New Zealand material, is doubtful ( Battershill et al. 2010), as the species is restricted to the Northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean regions ( Van Soest et al. 2018b).

In more recent times, the name fragilis has been applied widely to Dysidea specimens from various environments around New Zealand, in biodiversity inventories ( Gordon & Ballantine 1976; Pritchard et al. 1984), or marine natural products investigations ( Evans & Bergquist 1977; Perry et al. 1987), yet none of these publications provide descriptions suitable for evaluation. Examination and redescription of the original Bergquist (1961b) and subsequent specimens is beyond the scope of this contribution and probably impossible due to loss of voucher specimens. We concur with Battershill et al. (2010) that use of the name Dysidea fragilis in New Zealand waters is invalid.