Lelapiella tertia, Klautau & Lopes & Tavares & Pérez, 2022

Klautau, Michelle, Lopes, Matheus Vieira, Tavares, Gabriela & Pérez, Thierry, 2022, Integrative taxonomy of calcareous sponges (Porifera: Calcarea) from Réunion Island, Indian Ocean, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 194, pp. 671-725 : 702-704

LELAPIELLA TERTIA SP. NOV.

( FIGS 17 , 18 ; TABLE 9)

Zoobank registration: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:AF5A1C7E-AA51-4D4B-A330-.

Diagnosis: Lelapiella with cortical tripods and choanosomal triactines and tetractines. Diactines and spicules tracts absent.

Etymology: From the Latin word tertius, which means third, because this is the third recognized species of the genus.

704 M. KLAUTAU ET AL .

Type locality: Passe de l’Hermitage , La Réunion, Indian Ocean .

Ty p e m a t e r i a l: H o l o t y p e – U F R J P O R 8 9 3 7 (= 171109- PAE2 - TP13 ). Passe de l’Hermitage Reef , La Réunion, Indian Ocean, coll. T. Pérez, 9 November 2017, 18– 20 m depth .

Colour: Sponge white to beige in life and white in ethanol (although we have not observed this species during the collection, it corresponds probably to the sponge in Fig. 17A ).

Morphology and anatomy: Sponge encrusting, with radial growing and oscula on the top of short cones ( Fig. 17A–C ). Aquiferous system leuconoid. Surface smooth. The skeleton is composed of large cortical tripods ( Fig. 17D ) and choanosomal triactines ( Fig. 17E ) and few tetractines ( Fig. 17F ). Sagittal triactines and tetractines similar to those of the choanosome support the oscula. Trichoxeas are also present.

Figures

Figure 17. Lelapiella tertia (holotype; UFRJPOR 8937). A, specimen in vivo (arrow points to the sponge). B, fixed specimen. SEM: C, fragment of the specimen. D, tangential section of the surface. E, choanosome. F, tetractines in the choanosome.

Figure 18. Lelapiella tertia (holotype; UFRJPOR 8937). A, tripod. B, triactine. C, tetractine. D, apical actine of a tetractine.