Craniella wolfi, Schuster & Cárdenas & Pisera & Pomponi & Kelly & Wörheide & Erpenbeck, 2018

Schuster, Astrid, Cárdenas, Paco, Pisera, Andrzej, Pomponi, Shirley A., Kelly, Michelle, Wörheide, Gert & Erpenbeck, Dirk, 2018, Seven new deep-water Tetractinellida (Porifera: Demospongiae) from the Galápagos Islands - morphological descriptions and DNA barcodes, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 184, pp. 273-303 : 297

CRANIELLA WOLFI SP. NOV.

( FIG. 14)

Diagnosis: Craniella with worm-like long (62–91 µ m) sigmaspires.

Type material: Holotype: HBOM 003 :02004, Coll. JSL-I dive 3909 [20 October 1995, Galápagos, S. Coast, approx. 5 NM NE of Wolf Island , 1°21 ′ 28 ″ N, 91°48 ′ 41 ″ W, 355 m].

Type locality: Wolf Island , Galápagos Islands (355 m) ( Fig. 1) .

Distribution: Only known from type locality.

Habitat: Attached to hard substratum, 355 m.

Description: Morphology, globular small hispid sponge with small apical oscule and 1-mm-thick cortex ( Fig. 14A, B). Dimension of the holotype is 3 cm in diameter and about 4–5 cm high ( Fig. 14A, B). Texture, soft. Surface, conulose and hispid. Colour, white in vivo ( Fig. 14A) and light brown in ethanol ( Fig. 14B). Ectosomal skeleton contains bundles of oxeas with few protriaenes sticking out of these bundles. No anatriaenes detected. Choanosomal skeleton contains oxeas ( Fig. 14C, D) and abandoned uncoiled sigmaspires. Megascleres are thick oxeas measuring 134– 356 –627 × 8– 15 –25 µm (N30) ( Fig. 14C, D). Protriaenes, equal clads measuring 121– 150 –177 µ m (N11) and rhabdome 3380– 4864 – 5640 × 19– 27 –30 µ m (N11). Anatriaenes are not present in our spicule preparations. Microscleres are thin and uncoiled long sigmaspires 62– 79 – 91 × 1–3 µ m (N30) ( Fig. 14G).

Etymology: Named after point of origin: Wolf Island (Latin, wolfi ).

DNA barcodes: We sequenced COI, 28S (C1-D2) and 18S (1,670 bp) of the holotype. GenBank accession number: COI KY652825 , 28S KY652795 , 18S KY652840 . SBD record no. 1727 .

Remarks: The absence of porocalices and the presence of a conspicuous double-layered cortex clearly places this species into the genus Craniella . There are currently 34 valid Craniella species (P. Cárdenas, unpublished results), ten of which have lost their sigmaspires. The remaining 24 species have classical C- or S-shaped sigmaspires 8–30 µ m long; none have these unusually worm-like long (62–91 µ m) sigmaspires. Molecular investigations confirm that C. wolfi sp. nov. is closely related to Craniella aff. zetlandica (ZMBN 85239) from Western Norway (Korsfjord), a topology which is highly supported (PP = 1, BS = 100) ( Fig. 5).