Paraleucilla erpenbecki, Van & De, 2018

Van, Rob W. M. & De, Nicole J., 2018, Calcareous sponges of the Western Indian Ocean and Red Sea, Zootaxa 4426 (1), pp. 1-160 : 151

Leucilla proteus Dendy, 1913

Dendy (1913: 26) described this species from the Seychelles as distinct, but very close to L. australiensis ( Carter, 1886) . He suggested that it was possible that the small Seychelles specimens could be juveniles of the Australian species. L. australiensis was also reported from Indonesia (cf. Van Soest & De Voogd 2015, p. 95) and from South Africa ( Borojević 1967, p. 221). Borojević (1967) and Borojević & Boury-Esnault (1987b) supported Dendy’s view and synonymized L. proteus with L. australiensis , but eventually Borojević et al. (2000) reassigned L. proteus to Paraleucilla proteus as a separate valid species. Above, the species is compared with Paraleucilla erpenbecki sp.nov., showing that the differences with that species are considerable.