Isodictya lankesteri

• Main Authors: Schejter, Laura, Cristobo, Javier, Ríos, Pilar
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2024
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Porifera; Demospongiae; Poecilosclerida; Isodictyidae; Isodictya; Isodictya lankesteri; Antarc*; Antarctica; South Orkney Islands
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10562158; http://treatment.plazi.org/id/03D687FDC5078255FF45FE576BF9BD91

Isodictya lankesteri (Kirkpatrick, 1907) (Figure 5m –p) Restricted synonymy: Cercidochela lankesteri Kirkpatrick, 1907. Material examined: 2 specimens collected at station 16 (SOI; 60°40,992'S, 46°14,560'W; 104 m; 7/3/2012; MACN-In 44378; IEO-CSIC Col.). Description: One large arborescent specimen, 43 cm high, and a small broken cylindrical specimen, light beige in colour. The larger and complete specimen has a velvety surface, with multiple oscula evident on the branches, the oscula are roughly aligned. The rhizoid anchor structure is conspicuous and has sediment grains and small pebbles attached (Fig. 5m). The skeleton is composed of ascending plumose multispicular tracts of oxeas. These are connected by other oxeas (Figure 5p). Microscleres are abundant and dispersed throughout the choanosome. Megascleres are oxeas 270–430 µm by 10–20 µm; microscleres are canonochelae of 50–70 µm (Figure 5n, o). Remarks: This species was previously recorded by Hentschel (1914), Burton (1929), Desqueyroux (1975), Campos et al. (2007) and Fernández et al. (2021), amongst others. This is a new record for the SOI. Published as part of Schejter, Laura, Cristobo, Javier & Ríos, Pilar, 2024, New records of demosponges (Porifera) from the South Orkney Islands (Antarctica) with a checklist for the region, pp. 401-430 in Zootaxa 5403 (4) on page 413, DOI:10.11646/zootaxa.5403.4.1, http://zenodo.org/record/10562154