First record of a living species of the genus Janulum (Class Demospongiae) in the Southern Hemisphere
Author
Kelly, Michelle
Author
Erpenbeck, Dirk
Author
Morrow, Christine
Author
Soest, Rob Van
text
Zootaxa
2015
3980
2
255
266
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.3980.2.6
93c6c6a8-9f68-49db-8ac5-75663b8da7c2
1175-5326
236017
A09C107C-3F36-44A3-AE6D-339D0D2E4ED9
Genus
Janulum
de Laubenfels
Janulum
de
Laubenfels, 1936
: 79
.
Type
species.
Janulum spinispiculum
(
Carter, 1876
)
(
type
by original designation).
Diagnosis.
Encrusting sponges with a smooth or lobed to columnar, distinctly punctate surface, with a firm to crisp, fragile texture in life. Colour in life ranges from pale yellow to cream to translucent pale blue. Choanosomal architecture consists of a single category of peculiar spined strongyles arranged in a delicate isodictyal reticulation of single spicules. Ectosome a tangential isodictyal reticulation. Spined strongyles are straight or bent abruptly at each end; typically ends bend to the same side of the spicule but may also bend to opposite sides. Strongyles possess sharp concave spines concentrated in the middle of the strongyle, ends are rounded, smooth, slightly expanded. Spines project perpendicular to the shaft and are aligned in what appear to be short linear spiralling arrays. A few spicules, often thin and immature, may be entirely smooth (modified and expanded from
Vacelet (1969)
and
Boury-Esnault
et al.
(1994
)).