Guitarra davidconryi, Ekins & Erpenbeck & Goudie & Hooper, 2020

Ekins, Merrick, Erpenbeck, Dirk, Goudie, Lisa & Hooper, John N. A., 2020, New carnivorous sponges and allied species from the Great Australian Bight, Zootaxa 4878 (2), pp. 240-266 : 255-258

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.4878.2.2

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:111A9D05-860F-4917-A466-A44847B2D650

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4570961

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/E17354FE-8DB8-4821-AD2C-BEF8A5FD5A63

taxon LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:act:E17354FE-8DB8-4821-AD2C-BEF8A5FD5A63

treatment provided by

Plazi

scientific name

Guitarra davidconryi
status

sp. nov.

Guitarra davidconryi View in CoL sp. nov.

Figure 8 View FIGURE 8 , Table 4 View Table 4

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:E17354FE-8DB8-4821-AD2C-BEF8A5FD5A63

Material Examined: Holotype SAMA S2161 About SAMA , Commonwealth Marine Reserve, Great Australian Bight , South Australia, SZ 12, 35 o 40’ 46” S 135 o 41’ 37” E, 137 m, Smith-McIntyre grab, Coll. CSIRO on RV Investigator, Cruise IN 2017_C01, sample IN2017_C01_ SMG_212b, 24 April 2017.

Etymology: This species is named for Mr David Mark Conry AM, outgoing Chair of the Board of the Queensland Museum and Co-Founder of Youngcare, in recognition of his guidance, great support, and generosity of his time during some challenging periods.

Distribution: This species is presently known only from a single specimen from the Great Australian Bight, epipelagic depth.

Description: Growth form: The holotype is composed of two small fragments, the largest is a small tear dropshaped fragment only 5 mm in length ( Fig. 8 A View FIGURE 8 ), presumably from a much larger body, of which the remainder is unknown. All of the fragments of the holotype are now mounted on the SEM stubs and microscope slides.

Colour: Off-white after preservation in ethanol.

Ectosomal skeleton: The ectosome consists of a disorganised array of anisoxeote styles tangential to the surface, with occasional placochelae also distributed on the surface.

Endosomal skeleton: The endosomal skeleton consists of widely spaced bundles of oxeas meeting the ectosome at an obtuse angle. Here the mesohyl contains the acanthoisochelae microscleres.

Megascleres: Oxeas slightly curved with greatest thickness at the centre of the spicule, tapering to abrupt points (102–(139)–194 x 1.5–(3.8)– 5.3 µm, n=62). Very thin long sinuous styles slightly curved approximately one-third of their length towards the basal end, base tapering, slightly rounded, almost anisoxeote, points long and tapering (226–(310)–360 x 1.4–(3.9)–6.0 µm, n=41).

Microscleres: Placochelae (26.5–(37.7)–48.6 x 8.1–(13.4)– 19.8 µm, n=34). Palmate acanthoisochelae (6.4– (10.5)–14.3 x 0.4–(0.8)– 1.4 µm, n=47).

Molecular data: Due to the size of the small sample all of the material was used in the manufacture of microscope slides and SEM stubs.

Remarks: Guitarra davidconryi sp. nov. is the first record of the genus from the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The new species is most similar to G. indica Dendy, 1916 from shallow subtidal depths of Poshetra, India, in the morphology of its anisoxeote styles (which Dendy terms ‘tornostrongyles’), but differs in its gross morphology (massive versus cushion-shaped), and the possession of oxeas in addition to styles as megascleres. Dendy’s illustration of placochelae ( Dendy 1916, Pl. I, Fig. 5b View FIGURE 5 ) depicts both mature and juvenile forms, with the latter referred to as developmental stages, but which are more likely to be palmate acanthoisochelae, similar to those in G. davidconryi sp. nov., G. laplani Boury-Esnault et al., 1993 , G. sepia Lerner et al., 2004 , and G. solorzanoi Cristobo, 1998 .

To some extent this new species also resembles the brief description of G. novaezealandiae Dendy, 1924 from epipelagic depths in New Zealand, in its morphology, size of oxeas and placochelae, but differs from the latter in having styles as well as oxeas as structural megascleres, palmate acanthoisochelae and lacking sigmas. This species also bears some resemblance to G. exoclavata ( Lévi, 1993) from mesophotic depths off New Caledonia, which is cushion shaped, has oxeas and exotyles as megascleres (both of which are magnitudes of size larger than the equivalent megascleres of G. davidconryi sp. nov.), two sizes of placochelae, and tiny bipocilla-like isochelae. Guitarra bipocillifera Brøndsted, 1924 also from New Zealand epipelagic depths, synonymised with G. fimbriata Carter, 1874 by Bergquist & Fromont (1998) but an action not universally accepted by subsequent authors (e.g. Carballo

& Uriz 1998, Van Soest et al. 2018), has one type of spiny bipocilla-like isochelae similar to the palmate acanthoisochelae of G. davidconryi sp. nov. but lacks styles and has larger placochelae. A comparison of morphological characters found in all currently known species of Guitarra is presented in Table 4 View Table 4 .

Table 4. Comparison of all known species of Guitarra.

Species Source morphology Colour oscules Ectosome Choanosome Oxeas (µm) Styles (µm) (LxW) Placochelae Biplacochelae Palmate Bipocilla Sigmas Locality Depth (m)
              (LxW)   (µm) (µm) acanthoisochelae like (µm)    
                      (µm) isochelae      
                        (µm)      
Guitarra davidconryi present work teardrop shaped off-white not observed disorganised array widely spaced 102-194 x sinuous 226-360 x 26.5-49 x 8-20 absent 6-14 x 0.4-1.4 absent absent Great Australian 137
sp. nov.   fragments of a preserved   of anisoxeote styles bundles of oxeas 1.5-5.3 1.4-6.0           Bight, South  
    larger more massive     tangential to the meeting the               Australia  
    specimen     surface ectosome at an                  
            obtuse angle                  
Guitarra abbotti Lee,1987 Lee, 1987:465, encrusting to massive, brown clustered 1 -6 mm spicular brushes of regular isotropic absent 249-396 x 5-9 large 64-100 23-46 absent 3-14 absent California,USA 34-46
  Figs 1-13 ovoid or pulvinate     bundles of styles reticulation     small 27-53            
    when small,     penetrating surface of bundles of                  
    digitate and irregular       styles                  
    when massive                          
Guitarra antarctica Hentschel, 1914: massive to spherical, whitish brown small, narrow slit- microscopically loose net-like 408-496 x absent 95-110 x 33-40 absent absent absent 23-28 Antarctica 380-385
Hentschel,1914 75-76,Pl.VI, surface fairly smooth   shaped openings hispid with spicule reticulation as 7-11   45-55 x 12-13            
  Fig.4     with raised edges bundles ending in well as scattered                  
          clumps oxeas                  
Guitarra bipocillifera Brøndsted, massive rounded, light grey scattered 1mm choanosomal tract regular 320-425 x Nil 23-101 absent absent 10-13 absent part New Zealand 55-110
Brøndsted, 1924 1924:458 - lump-shaped preserved,   of oxeas fan into isodictyal 5-10                
  459, Fig.16; to globular, white alive   brushes at surface triangular                  
  Bergquist & characteristic furrowed       reticulate of                  
  Fromont 1988: compartmentalised       oxea spicule                  
  40-42,Pl.14 surface, finely hispid       bundles,with                  
  D-F,Fig. 15         many oxeas                  
  A-C (the latter         also scattered in                  
  synonymised         mesohyl                  
with G.
fimbriata Carter)
Guitarra endyi (Kirkpatrick, Kirkpatrick, small cushion, narrow pale brown in Nil protective armour radiating absent exotyles 358 x 6.5 85 x 30 absent absent absent 9 x 5 Antarctica 240
1907) 1907:285-286 base preservative   formed by gigantic bundles of   strongyles 468 x 10              
          spheroidal heads of exotyles                  
          exotyles                    
Guitarra exoclavata (Lévi, Levi,1993: 46, hemispherical plano- light grey Nil bundles of long bundles of oxeas 420-520 x exotyles 810-800 x 7-10 1, 55-65 x absent absent 8 absent New Caledonia 500-510
1993) Fig.13D,Pl.V, convex cushion-     exotyles on the criss-crossing 8-10   20-23            
  Fig.5-6, Pl XI, shaped     surface and irregular throughout the 280-300 x   2, 32-36 x            
  Fig.9-11       tangential oxeas choanosome 8-10   8-10            

…continued on the next page

SAMA

South Australia Museum

CSIRO

Australian National Fish Collection

RV

Collection of Leptospira Strains

GBIF Dataset (for parent article) Darwin Core Archive (for parent article) View in SIBiLS Plain XML RDF