Cladocroce kiska Lehnert & Stone, 2013, n. sp.

• Main Authors: Lehnert, Helmut, Stone, Robert P.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Porifera; Demospongiae; Haplosclerida; Chalinidae; Cladocroce; Cladocroce kiska; Kiska; Holdfast; Kiska Island; Vega Point; Alaska; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/6163041; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6163041

Cladocroce kiska n. sp. (Fig. 5) Material examined. Holotype: USNM# 1202120, collected by Jim Stark on 16 July 2012 at 51 ° 46.37´N, 177 ° 27.45´E, 11.1 km SE of Vega Point, Kiska Island, western Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA, at a depth of 255 m and a water temperature of 4.1 °C; paratype: USNM# 1202121, collected by Jay Orr on 4 July 2012 at 51 ° 40.75´N, 177 ° 11.26´W, 4.2 km SW of Cape Chlanak, Kanaga Island, central Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA, at a depth of 84 m and a water temperature of 4.5 °C. Description. Both specimens are stalked flabellate but lobed and golden brown in color. The lobes are coalesced to some degree. The consistency of both specimens is soft, elastic, compressible and difficult to tear. Circular oscules, 2–5 mm in diameter, with rims slightly raised above the surface are arranged in irregular rows. There are oscules on the upper stalk and on the outside margin of the lobes but not in obvious rows. The holotype has a maximum height of 26 cm, a maximum width of 20 cm, is somewhat planar and consists of two main branches and 7 lobes total (Fig. 5 A). The lobes are about 1 cm thick. The stalk is about 2 cm in diameter, 3.5 cm in length, 3.5 cm wide at the holdfast and attached to a pebble (4.5 cm diameter). It widens gradually into a flabellate, folded sponge with a smooth surface. The paratype was partially fragmented upon collection and has a maximum height of 27 cm, a maximum width of 26 cm, is somewhat less planar (almost arborescent) and consists of two main branches with 12 lobes total. The lobes are about 1 cm thick. The stalk is much less obvious, about 4 cm wide at the holdfast and attached to a small cobble. There is no special ectosome developed, ascending paucispicular tracts, 30–50 µm in diameter, terminate in spicule brushes at the microhispid surface which is optically smooth (Fig. 5 B). Paucispicular tracts are connected by single spicules. Independent from the reticulation of tracts and single spicules are pauci- to polyspicular tracts running through the sponge (Figs. ...