A revision of the supraspecific classification of the subclass Calcaronea (Porifera, class Calcarea) Author Borojevic, Radovan Departamento de Histologia e Embriologia, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Caixa Postal 68021, 21941 - 970 Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) radovan @ iq. ufrj. br radovan@iq.ufrj.br Author Boury-Esnault, Nicole Author Vacelet, Jean Centre d’Océanologie de Marseille (CNRS-Université de la Méditerranée, UMR 6540 DIMAR), Station marine d’Endoume, F- 13007 Marseille (France) esnault @ com. univ-mrs. fr jvacelet @ com. univ-mrs. fr text Zoosystema 2000 22 2 203 263 journal article 10.5281/zenodo.5392175 1638-9387 5392175 Genus Ascute Dendy & Row, 1913 TYPE SPECIES . — Leucosolenia uteoides Dendy, 1892 by original designation. DIAGNOSIS. — Leucosoleniidae in which the skeleton can be composed of diactines, triactines and/or tetractines, with an outer layer that is supported by giant longitudinal diactines. DESCRIPTION Dendy & Row (1913) placed the genus Ascute among sponges with basinucleate choanocytes. We have examined the type specimen of Leucosolenia uteoides Dendy, 1892 (BMNH 1893. 6.9.33) and found that it only has typical sagittal triactine and tetractine spicules that are organized in a pattern very similar to the skeleton of Leucosolenia ( Fig. 15 ), and quite different from the Clathrinidae , which are characterised by regular spicules. Since the appearance of the choanocytes may be considered altered by fixation (Vacelet 1964), we prefer to place this genus close to Leucosolenia until examination of new specimens and a revision of their cytology is possible. Only two species were described in this genus; both are from Australia : A. asconoides (Carter, 1886) and A. uteoides (Dendy, 1892) .