33 species of shallow-water Demospongiae (Phylum Porifera) are described from Sodwana Bay, iSimangaliso Wetland Park, on the east coast of South Africa. Of the 33 species collected, 18 are redescribed from fresh material and 15 are new to science. Orders Clionaida, Poecilosclerida, Axinellida, Haplosclerida and Dictyoceratida are well represented in the collection with 4 to 6 species each, with the first three groups appearing to have the greatest diversity on the east coast of South Africa. The east coast of South Africa appears to have a high abundance of poecilosclerid and dictyoceratid sponges. The results of this study underscore the importance of poecilosclerid and dictyoceratid sponge fauna of the east coast of South Africa, in terms of the potential for the continued discovery of new species.
Rob Van Soest (pers. communication) remarked that Spongia (Heterofibria) cooki Samaai, Pillay & Janson, 2019 is a junior primary homonym of Spongia vermiculata cookii Hyatt, 1877, now accepted as Spongia (Spongia) cookii Hyatt, 1877. Following the ICZN (art. 57.2, art. 58.14 [regarding -ii and -i], ICZN 1999) the published species name (Samaai et al. 2019) is unavailable and we now suggest replacing the name with Spongia (Heterofibria) peddemorsi following art. 60, ICZN (1999). The holotype is deposited into the collection at the Iziko South African Museum, Cape Town, SAM-A24791, for further collection data see Samaai et al. 2019.
Cymbastela sodwaniensis sp. nov. (order Halichondrida: family Axinellidae) is described from the subtropical waters of Sodwana Bay on the north-east coast of South Africa. The genus was previously unknown from southern Africa or the western and eastern parts of the Indian Ocean. This record represents the westernmost extent of this predominantly Indo-Pacific to Australasian genus. This new species record brings the number of Cymbastela species described to a total of nine.
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