Latrunculia (Latrunculia) cratera du Bocage, 1869

Samaai, Toufiek, Gibbons, Mark J. & Kelly, Michelle, 2006, Revision of the genus Latrunculia du Bocage, 1869 Porifera: Demospongiae: Latrunculiidae) with descriptions of new species from New Caledonia and the Northeastern Pacific (, Zootaxa 1127 (1), pp. 1-71 : 9

Latrunculia (Latrunculia) cratera du Bocage, 1869

( Figs 1 A & 2 ; Tables 1 & 3)

Latrunculia cratera du Bocage, 1869: 161 , PL XI, FIG. 2 .

Holotype material. Not examined (lost), Latrunculia cratera du Bocage

Other material examined. BMNH 1910.1.11.1813, labeled Latrunculia cratera identified by Norman, Norman Collection, HMS Porcupine, microscope­slide; BMNH 1910.1.1.567a, labeled Latrunculia cratera identified by Norman, Norman Collection, Hardanger Fjord, Norway, microscope­slide; BMNH 1910.1.1.1810, labeled Latrunculia cratera identified by Lervig, Norway 1879, microscope­slide; BMNH 1910.1.1.1172, labeled Latrunculia cratera identified by Lervig, Norway, stn. 32, microscope slide; BMNH 1910.1.1.1812, Norway 1879, stn. 29, microscope slide; BMNH 1910.1.1.1809, labeled Latrunculia cratera identified by Lervig (1879), Norway, microscope­slide; BMNH 1910.1.1.1808, labeled Latrunculia cratera identified by Lervig (1879), Norway, microscope­slide; BMNH 1910.1.1.1807, labeled Latrunculia cratera identified by Lervig (1879), Norway, microscope­slide; BMNH 1910.1.1.1811, labeled Latrunculia cratera identified by Lervig 1879, Norway, microscope­slide; BMNH 1920.4.1.78, labeled Latrunculia cratera identified by Norman, Norman Collection, Norway, microscope­slide; BMNH 1920.4.1.79, labeled Latrunculia cratera identified by Norman, Norman Collection, Norway, microscope­slide; BMNH 1920.4.1.80, labeled Latrunculia cratera identified by Norman, Norman Collection Norway, microscope­slide.

Diagnosis. Small thickly encrusting Latrunculiidae , with smooth, microscopically hispid surface. Surface usually with volcano­shaped or cylindrical oscules, together with mammiform to crater­shaped areolate porefields. Colour in life and in preservative unknown. The choanosomal skeleton consists of a large­meshed polygonal reticulation formed by wispy tracts of spicules with no spongin reinforcement. The ectosomal skeleton is a tangential layer of megascleres. The surface of the sponge has a distinct palisade of anisodiscorhabds. Megascleres are smooth or polytylote styles 160 µm – 190 µm x 6µm. Microscleres are anisodiscorhabds 40 µm in length (after Burton, unpublished catalogue, BMNH) ( Fig. 1A and Table 3), with clearly distinguished basal, median and subsidiary whorls. The sponge (whose habitat and depth range is unknown), has only been recorded from the Cape Verde Islands in the North Atlantic ( Fig. 2 ) (modified from Bocage, 1869).

Geographic Distribution. ( Fig. 2 ). Cape Verde Islands.

Remarks. The type material of Latrunculia cratera is not available from the Museu Bocage, Lisbon; Bocage's sponge collection was lost after the museum burnt down in 1978. This species has not been recorded since it was first described. Alleged fragments of the type of Latrunculia cratera have since been reported in the Norman and Lervig collections in the BMNH, all of which have been examined and transferred to either the genus Sceptrella (Latrunculiidae) or Sigmosceptrella (Podospongiidae) (see Samaai and Kelly 2002 and Kelly and Samaai 2002 for revision on families) ( Table 1). While this species is poorly known, the original description, illustrations (du Bocage 1869) and description of microsclere ontogeny ( Dendy 1917), have provided a clear definition of the key characters that define Latrunculia species.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Worldwide distributions of Latrunculia (Latrunculia) species. Distributions of 1) Latrunculia cratera du Bocage, 2) L. bocagei Ridley and Dendy, 3) L. apicalis Ridley and Dendy, 4) L. biformis Kirkpatrick, 5) Latrunculia basilis Kirkpatrick, 6) L. brevis Ridley and Dendy, 7) Latrunculia palmata Lévi, 8) Latrunculia multirotalis Topsent, 9) Latrunculia crenulata Lévi, 10) Latrunculia ikematsui Tanita, 11) Latrunculia oxydiscorhabda Alvarez et al., 12) Latrunculia triverticillata Alvarez et al., 13) Latrunculia fiordensis Alvarez et al., 14) Latrunculia novaecaledoniae sp. nov.