Sponges of the family Esperiopsidae (Demospongiae, Poecilosclerida) from Northwest Africa, with the descriptions of four new species
Author
Van Soest, Rob W. M.
Author
Beglinger, Elly J.
Author
de Voogd, Nicole J.
text
European Journal of Taxonomy
2012
2012-07-27
18
1
21
journal article
21835
10.5852/ejt.2012.18
c28abfaa-4012-488d-9c90-a06cc8da589b
2118-9773
3857876
27F70F53-68F3-42AB-8893-347F796796EC
Genus
Esperiopsis
Carter, 1882
Remarks
Currently, there are 33 species assigned to this genus (Van Soest
et al.
2012). Possibly, some of the species may need to be transferred to other genera because of the interpretation of the morphological structure of the chelae (e.g.
E. flava
Lévi, 1993
and similar species with deformed chelae, which cannot be identified with certainty as palmate), others would have to be returned to
Amphilectus
if the style size difference would be no longer a valid discriminatory character of the two genera. Future studies using additional datasets (such as molecular sequences) are needed to clarify the status of
Esperiopsis
.