Tethyidae Gray, 1848

Sim-Smith, Carina, Hickman, Cleveland & Kelly, Michelle, 2021, New shallow-water sponges (Porifera) from the Galápagos Islands, Zootaxa 5012 (1), pp. 1-71 : 53

Family Tethyidae Gray, 1848

Genus Tethya Lamarck, 1815 [1814]

Diagnosis. Tethyidae with a spherical, sometimes hemispherical body with a well-developed cortex, distinct from the choanosome, dense or rich in lacunae. Main skeleton formed by strongyloxea bundles radiating from the centre of the sponge and bristling generally flattened, sometimes conical tubercles on the surface. The whole choanosome or its periphery may be filled by thinner auxiliary megascleres that accompany the distal fans of megasclere bundles in the tubercles. Main megascleres are usually strongyloxeas, interstitial (auxiliary) megascleres are often styles. Megasters and micrasters are variously distributed in the cortex and choanosome. Megasters are spherasters or oxyspherasters. Micrasters are tylasters, strongylasters or oxyasters, normally with spined rays, with polyrhabds in some species (from Sarà 2002).