Xestospongia pacifica Kelly-Borges & Bergquist, 1988

Setiawan, Edwin, Erpenbeck, Dirk, Wörheide, Gert & De Voogd, Nicole J., 2018, Bearing the wrong identity: A case study of an Indo-Pacific common shallow water sponge of the genus Neopetrosia (Haplosclerida; Petrosiidae), Zootaxa 4500 (1), pp. 43-58 : 47-48

Xestospongia pacifica Kelly-Borges & Bergquist, 1988

Figure 1C , 2C , 3C , Table 1;

Xestospongia pacifica Kelly-Borges & Bergquist, 1988: 155 , P. 6c, 6d.

Material examined: Holotype: AM Z4999 , Papua New Guinea, Buna Motu Reef , Bootless Bay, South Papua New Guinea.

Description (amended from Kelly-Borges & Bergquist 1988): The sponge grows as an encrustation of 5-10 mm thickness, frequently with papillae 20-60 mm high and 5-10 wide. It has small oscules of 1-3 mm width.

Colour. In life, the colour is brownish orange to olive. In alcohol, the colour changes into olive black and slightly browner.

Consistency. Tough, compressible and extremely brittle.

Spicules. Oxeas in a size range of 100- 149.6 -175 x 5- 9.2 -10 µm

Skeleton. Dense and an isodictyal tangential spicule network with one size of spicules.

Remarks: This species was synonymised with Neopetrosia exigua by Van Soest (2008) based on morphological similarities. These include the spicule consisting only of oxeas smaller than 200 µm and the skeletal meshes are more compact in structure than those of Xestospongia ( Desqueyroux-Faundez & Valentine 2002) .

Figures

FIGURE 1. A Neopetrosia chaliniformis (Thiele, 1899) holotype ZMB2889, B Neopetrosia exigua (Kirkpatrick, 1901), holotype BMNH1898.12.20.49, C Xestospongia pacifica Kelly-Borges & Bergquist, holotype AM Z4999, and D Neopetrosia pandora de Laubenfels, 1954, holotype USNM4806. Scale bar= 1 cm.

FIGURE 2. Oxea from the holotypes of A Neopetrosia chaliniformis (Thiele, 1899) ZMB2889, B Neopetrosia exigua (Kirkpatrick, 1901), BMNH1898.12.20.49, C Xestospongia pacifica Kelly-Borges & Bergquist, AMS Z4999, and D Neopetrosia pandora de Laubenfels, 1954, USNM4806. Scale bar= 50 µm

FIGURE 3. Spicule arrangement in holotypes of A Neopetrosia chaliniformis (Thiele, 1899) ZMB2889, B Neopetrosia exigua (Kirkpatrick, 1901), BMNH1898.12.20.49, C Xestospongia pacifica Kelly-Borges & Bergquist, AMS Z4999, and D Neopetrosia pandora de Laubenfels, 1954, USNM4806. Scale bar= 150 µm.