Correcting sponge names: nomenclatural update of lower taxa level Porifera Author Van Soest, Rob W. M. text Zootaxa 2024 2024-01-09 5398 1 1 122 http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5398.1.1 journal article 10.11646/zootaxa.5398.1.1 1175-5334 10494167 E233F731-D5FA-4032-B3A4-CEFE5A809C49 Geodia hilgendorfi var. granosa Thiele, 1898 ( Fig. 5L ) Geodia hilgendorfi var. granosa Thiele, 1898: 9 , pl. 6 figs. 4i–k. The variety was described by Thiele from Enoshima, Japan , approximate coordinates 35.28°N 139.48°E , no depth data reported. Two (wet) specimens were collected by Hilgendorf, the third specimen was borrowed from the D̂derlein collection from the Strassbourg Museum. The Museum f̧r Naturkunde in Berlin holds three specimens of Geodia hilgendorfi lacking varietal names, ZMB 952, 2179, and 6664. The name Geodia hilgendorfi is not found among the type specimens listed in the Strassbourg Museum catalogue. It remains to be established which of the extant specimens represents the var. granosa . In Thiele’s description of G. hilgendorfi , the varietal name granosa is cursorily mentioned in the last line (p. 9), and the name appears in the legend of plate 6 as fig. 4i–k (the other spicules drawn in Fig. 4a–h are from the typical variety). The difference with the typical variety is primarily the shape of the oxyasters, thick-centered spheraster-like in the typical variety, longer-rayed, less spheraster-like in the var. granosa . The difference seems small (Thiele himself noted that also) and because the two varieties occurred sympatrically I propose to merge them into a single species Geodia hilgendorfi Thiele, 1898 .