Protoschmidtia foraminosa Czerniavsky, 1880

Van Soest, Rob W. M., 2024, Correcting sponge names: nomenclatural update of lower taxa level Porifera, Zootaxa 5398 (1), pp. 1-122 : 40

Protoschmidtia foraminosa Czerniavsky, 1880

Protoschmidtia foraminosa Czerniavsky, 1880: 98 .

Haliclona foraminosa ; Ereskovsky et al. 2016: table A1 (listed only); Ereskovsky et al. 2018: table 3, listed only; Van Soest et al. 2020: 28, case 40.

The names erected by the author Czerniavsky for species, varieties and formae from the Black Sea are often problematic because of repetitive use of the same geographic names (as varieties or formae) for different species of the same genus. The descriptions are in Latin (first) and Russian (second) and are for that reason difficult to validate against recent descriptions of established Mediterranean species of the relevant genera.

Protoschmidtia foraminosa Czerniavsky, 1880 (misprinted as Protochmidtia on p. 98) is reassigned to the combination Haliclona foraminosa ( Czerniavsky, 1880) on the basis of De Weerdt’s (2002: 872) suggestion that the genus is a junior synonym of Haliclona . It is also a senior secondary synonym of Halicona foraminosa (sensu Topsent, 1904 as Reniera , currently Haliclona (Gellius) emiletopsenti Van Soest & Hooper, 2020: 28 ) and Haliclona foraminosa (sensu Thiele, 1905 as Reniera , currently Haliclona thielei Van Soest & Hooper, 2020: 28 ). Czerniavsky erected three formae for the present species, one of which was split into three subformae. As the fourth name of a trinomen these latter subformae are unavailable names (ICZN art. 45.5) to be deferred to their trinomen. The descriptions of these formae and subformae are limited to the shape or growth form, because only the introductory paragraph of P. foraminosa contains information on the spicules, given as 140–210 x 7–12, and there is a reference to some drawings in Czerniavsky’s plate I, which are unclear representations of deformed oxeas (?) stated to be of forma aurantiaca (cf. below).

Type material of several of the formae of this species is kept in ZIN-RAS (type specimen information courtesy of the curator of the Cnidaria collection Olga Bozhenova).

Apparently, the formae and subformae have similar spicules and are closely similar. All originated from the Crimea and close-by localities provided below in the notes of the various varieties and (sub)formae, with approximate coordinates and depth data. Because of the sympatric occurrence and the lack of differences, I propose to merge all the formae and subformae into a single species Haliclona foraminosa ( Czerniavsky, 1880) .