Esperiopsis challengeri var. meangensis Ridley & Dendy, 1886

Van Soest, Rob W. M., 2024, Correcting sponge names: nomenclatural update of lower taxa level Porifera, Zootaxa 5398 (1), pp. 1-122 : 67

Esperiopsis challengeri var. meangensis Ridley & Dendy, 1886

Esperiopsis challengeri var. meangensis Ridley & Dendy, 1886: 341 ; Ridley & Dendy 1887: 82 (no illustration).

The variety was described by Ridley & Dendy on fragments from E off the Philippine island of Meangis, 4.55°N 127.1°E, depth 900 m (holotype BMNH 1887.5.2.150), not too far from the East Sulawesi type locality of the typical variety described by Ridley (1885: 570, as Amphilectus , from Challenger Exped. Stat. 196, E of Celebes, 0.8083°S 126.975°E, at comparable bathyal depth of 1508 m, syntypes BMNH 1887.5.2.132–135, 1887.11.19.5). The major difference with the typical variety was the greater length of the styles (630 µm vs. 350 µm in the typical variety. Also, the isochelae were slightly longer than in the typical variety. Ridley & Dendy nevertheless admitted that spicule lengths in both varieties were rather variable. Lévi (1993: 43, pl. IV fig. 7, IX fig. 8, text-fig.16A) reported E. challengeri from New Caledonia where he found intermediate spicule sizes and considered all reported specimens with the characteristic cladorhizid-like habit of E. challengeri to belong to a single species. Accordingly, I propose to merge the var. meangensis with the typical variety as Esperiopsis challengeri ( Ridley, 1885) .