Penares Gray, 1867

Sim-Smith, Carina & Kelly, Michelle, 2019, Review of the sponge genus Penares (Demospongiae, Tetractinellida, Astrophorina) in the New Zealand EEZ, with descriptions of new species, Zootaxa 4638 (1), pp. 1-56 : 4-5

Genus Penares Gray, 1867

Penares Gray, 1867

Jasplakina de Laubenfels, 1954 .

Papyrula Schmidt, 1868: 18 .

?Pachamphilla Lendenfeld, 1907.

Type species. Penares helleri ( Schmidt, 1864) .

Diagnosis. Irregularly massive sponges, typically cream, grey, black, or yellow in colour. Microspined microxeas and/or microrhabds are arranged more-or-less tangentially at the surface of the sponge, forming a crust. Megascleres are oxeas and short- to medium-shafted dicho-, ortho- or plagiotriaenes that form a layer under or above the cortex, cladomes uppermost. Oxeas are arranged more-or-less radially in the upper choanosome but are usually disorganised below the subectosome. Microscleres are smooth microxeas and/or blunt-ended microrhabds that may or may not be centrotylote; microspined or smooth euasters (oxyasters, tylasters), spherules and spherasters are sometimes present.

Remarks. In his original concept of the geodiid subfamily Erylinae, Sollas included only Erylus Gray and Caminus Schmidt , but Cárdenas et al. (2010) found strong molecular support for inclusion of Pachymatisma Bowerbank in Johnson and Penares in Erylinae . Cárdenas et al. (2010) illustrated the main skeletal characters that define Erylinae ( Cárdenas et al. 2010; Fig. 6 ), which amounted to a series of ‘losses,’ including the lack of anatriaenes, protriaenes and cortical oxeas (of Geodiinae ) in Erylus , Caminus and Pachymatisma (see Sim-Smith & Kelly 2015). Erylinae are now defined as having short-shafted triaenes (although this is not strictly true with the description of Pachymatisma nodosa Sim-Smith & Kelly, 2015 ), microrhabds in the ectocortex (outer cortex), with spherules in the ectocortex being specific to Caminus and aspidasters to Erylus ( Cárdenas et al. 2010) .

Although supported by molecular studies, the inclusion of Penares in Erylinae , implies the major synapomorphies, i.e., the loss of protriaenes and anatriaenes, and the loss of sterrasters/aspidasters in Geodiidae , have been secondarily lost in Penares (see Cárdenas et al. (2010). Similarly, inclusion of E. euastrum (which contains aspidasters) within Penares (see Cárdenas et al. 2010) means that there is no morphological character that can be used to definitively separate Penares from Erylus , in a practical sense ( Sim-Smith & Kelly 2015). We question the inclusion of E. euastrum within Penares , for practical purposes, while keeping the two genera separate, and believe the more molecular evidence is needed to support these decisions.

In the meantime, we will continue to use the traditional, positive concept of Penares (i.e., Uriz 2002b) to assign new species, i.e., that these are sponges with a thin crust-forming cortex composed of smooth microrhabds that may or may not be centrotylote. In addition, the species possess short- to long-shafted dichotriaenes, orthotriaenes or plagiotriaenes and oxeas as megascleres, and the microsclere complement of microxeas and microrhabds may include euasters.

Figures

FIGURE 6. Distribution of P. schulzei (Dendy 1905), around New Zealand. The white outline shows New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone.