Janusya indica, Klautau & Lopes & Tavares & Pérez, 2022

Klautau, Michelle, Lopes, Matheus Vieira, Tavares, Gabriela & Pérez, Thierry, 2022, Integrative taxonomy of calcareous sponges (Porifera: Calcarea) from Réunion Island, Indian Ocean, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 194, pp. 671-725 : 682

JANUSYA INDICA SP. NOV.

( FIGS 5 , 6 ; TABLE 2 )

Zoobank registration: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:79DA23AC-B3EE-42B0-8BB3-1DA5F592AF9A .

Etymology: Named in reference to the type locality located in the Indian Ocean.

Diagnosis: Yellowish to beige Janusya in which the cormus is incrusting to globulose, formed by regular and tightly anastomosed tubes with long, apical, water-collecting tube. The skeleton contains fusiform diactines, trichoxeas, triactines and rare tetractines.

Type locality: Passe de l’Hermitage , La Réunion, Indian Ocean .

Type material: Holotype – UFRJPOR 8945 (= 171109- PAE2 - TP20 ) . Paratype – UFRJPOR 8932 (= 171109- PAE2 - TP6 ). Passe de l’Hermitage Reef , La Réunion, Indian Ocean, coll. T. Pérez, 9 November 2017, 18– 20 m depth .

A d d i t i o n a l m a t e r i a l e x a m i n e d: U F R J P O R 8 9 3 1 (= 1 7 1 1 0 9- PA E2 -T P 5), U F R J P O R 8 9 4 0 (= 171109-PAE2-TP16). Passe de l’Hermitage Reef, La Réunion, Indian Ocean, coll. T. Pérez , 9 November 2017, 18– 20 m depth .

Colour: Sponge yellowish beige in life ( Fig. 5A, B ) and light brown in ethanol ( Fig. 5C, D ).

Morphology and anatomy: Sponge incrusting to globulose ( Fig. 5 ). Cormus clathroid, formed by regular and tightly anastomosed tubes ( Fig. 5 ). One or few apical oscula, surrounded by membrane ( Fig. 5A ). The osculum is a long water-collecting tube, i.e. a larger tube with osculum that receives the water from several other thinner tubes. Underneath the osculum of globulose specimens, there is a cavity that is not lined by a continuous membrane. Cells with yellow granules are present and distributed homogeneously in the mesohyl of the specimens UFRJPOR 8945 and UFRJPOR 8932 ( Fig. 6A, B , respectivelly). The aquiferous system is asconoid and the skeleton is composed of diactines, trichoxeas, triactines and rare tetractines ( Fig. 6C–F ).

Figures

Figure 5. Janusya indica A, specimen in vivo (UFRJPOR 8931), associated with Leucaltis nodusgordii (white sponge) and near Ute insulagemmae (pink sponge). B, several specimens in vivo (paratype; UFRJPOR 8932). C, fixed specimen (holotype; UFRJPOR 8945). D, fixed specimen (paratype; UFRJPOR 8932). Arrows point to specimens of J. indica gen. et sp. nov.

Figure 6. Janusya indica A, cross-section of the specimen UFRJPOR 8945. B, cross-section of the specimen UFRJPOR 8932 with an apical actine of a tetractine pointing towards the lumen of a tube. C, diactine. D, triactines. E, triactines with shorter unpaired actine. F, tetractines (arrowhead points to a trichoxea).