Clathrina contorta var. spinosa sensu Jenkin 1908

Van, Rob W. M. & De, Nicole J., 2018, Calcareous sponges of the Western Indian Ocean and Red Sea, Zootaxa 4426 (1), pp. 1-160 : 152

Clathrina contorta var. spinosa sensu Jenkin 1908

Jenkin (1908: 437) described three specimens of a pure white sponge from Zanzibar with irregularly anastomosed tubuli under this name. Leucosolenia contorta ( Bowerbank, 1866) from Northeast European waters has a checkered history (cf. Minchin 1905; Klautau & Valentine 2003) with the current not well-established conclusion that it is a senior synonym of Ascetta spinosa Von Lendenfeld, 1891 described from the Adriatic and now assigned to the genus Ascandra as Ascandra contorta (see Klautau et al. 2016). How Jenkin (1908) came to consider his specimens to be a member of this species from Europe is not quite clear. The triactines and basal actines of the tetractines were 80–150 x 10–12 µm, the apical actines of the tetractines were 50– 65 x 5–7 µm. It is likely, but not certainly a species of Ernstia and its pure white color may indicate it is as yet undescribed.