Rowella connectens Lopes & Klautau 2023

• Main Authors: Lopes, Matheus Vieira, Klautau, Michelle
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Porifera; Calcarea; Clathrinida; Leucettidae; Rowella; Rowella connectens; New Zealand; Burton; North Cape
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/8152334; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8152334

ROWELLA CONNECTENS (BRØNDSTED, 1926) COMB. NOV. (FIGS 15, 16; TABLE 8) Synonyms: Leucandra connectens – Brøndsted, 1926: 308; Burton, 1963: 552. Type specimen: Five syntypes under the same voucher (NHMD-633253). Type locality: Cape Maria van Diemen, Northland, New Zealand (34°24ʹ S, 172°30ʹ E; inaccurate coordinates). Three Kings–North Cape MEOW ecoregion. Description: Sponge body tubular and digitate (Fig. 15A). Colour cream in ethanol. Consistency incompressible but slightly soft to the touch. Outer surface smooth. Cortex with multiple small inhalant apertures, giving it a porous appearance. Oscula present at the apical region of the tubes. They are simple slits or circular and surrounded by membrane with specific skeleton (Fig. 15B). Body wall thick, tapering towards the top and base of the sponge. Atrial cavity narrow and slightly hispid due to the apical actine of tetractines. Aquiferous system leuconoid with spherical choanocyte chambers (Fig. 15C). Skeleton: The oscular margin has sagittal triactines and tetractines, which gradually become regular as the body wall thickens (Fig. 15B). The cortical skeleton is well developed, although it is not as thick as the choanosome (Fig. 15C). The cortical skeleton has several layers of tangential triactines and few tetractines, which project their apical actine into the choanosome, but never reaching the atrium (Fig. 15D). The choanosomal skeleton is comprised of large triactines and pygmy triactines and tetractines, mostly present around the canals. The pygmy spicules are also present in the atrium, laying tangentially (Fig. 15E), with pygmy tetractines being more abundant and projecting their apical actine into the atrial cavity. Spicules (Table 8): Cortical triactines (Fig. 16A). Regular. Variable sizes. Actines are cylindrical to slightly conical, straight or slightly undulated in the middle portion. Tips are blunt. Size – 313.5 (± 77.5) μm length/24.5 (± 7.7) μm width. Cortical tetractines (Fig. 16B). Regular. Basal actines are conical, slightly undulated, with ...