Ascaltis compacta Schuffner, 1877

Van, Rob W. M. & De, Nicole J., 2018, Calcareous sponges of the Western Indian Ocean and Red Sea, Zootaxa 4426 (1), pp. 1-160 : 149

Ascaltis compacta Schuffner, 1877

Schuffner’s description (1877: 404, pl. 25 fig. 9) points towards Arturia or Ernstia. It is obviously close to Arturia sueziana Klautau & Valentine, 2003 , but these authors pointed out that Schuffner’s drawing does not show the presence of water-collecting tubes, which are so characteristic of A. sueziana . The additional argument for specific distinction, viz. the greater size of the actines of the triactines and tetractines, is not very convincing. In the absence of the type, which appears to be lost, it seems best to reassign A. compacta to Arturia as Arturia compacta .