New species of Latrunculia from the Agulhas shelf, South Africa, with designation of a type species for subgenus Biannulata (Demospongiae, Poecilosclerida, Latrunculiidae)

Abstract

Three new species of Latrunculia are described from Algoa Bay, and Alphard and 45-Mile Banks, on the Agulhascontinental shelf off the southern coast of South Africa. Latrunculia gotzi sp. nov., from Alphard Banks, forms a thickraised pad with broad, low, meandering areolate porefields that are characteristically lighter in colour than the surroundingmahogany brown ectosome. Latrunculia kerwathi sp. nov., from 45-Mile Banks, forms a thin, dark greenish brownencrustation, with very small, discrete, crater-shaped porefields. Latrunculia algoaensis sp. nov., from Algoa Bay, is agreen hemisphere with relatively large, thick-lipped, circular areolate porefields. While the megascleres in these newspecies vary specifically in their dimensions, the former two species have small irregular spines on the styles. Theanisodiscorhabds of the new species also vary specifically in dimensions and degree of ornamentation, but have anundifferentiated basal whorl and manubrium, with only median and subsidiary whorls around the shaft. These are identicalin overall form to the anisodiscorhabds in several South African and New Zealand species currently recognised within thesubgenus Latrunculia (Biannulata) Samaai et al., 2006, a group of 13 species for which no type species was ever assigned. A type species is designated herein.

Chemistry, Chemotaxonomy and Biological Activity of the Latrunculid Sponges (Order Poecilosclerida, Family Latrunculiidae)

“…The name of the subclass follows the classification proposal by Morrow and Cárdenas (2015) [ 55 ]. The systematics of Latrunculiidae follows Samaai and Kelly (2002) [ 25 ], Samaai et al (2003, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2012) [ 26 , 50 , 56 , 57 , 58 ], and Kelly et al (2016) [ 21 ]. Samaai et al (2004) and Kelly et al (2016) illustrate the diagnostic microscleres that define the Latrunculiidae genera [ 21 , 26 ].…”

A Quarter Century of Marine Biodiscovery in Algoa Bay, South Africa

“…T. favus afforded the first pyrroloiminoquinone metabolites to be isolated from an African latrunculid sponge . Since the discovery of T. favus , the subtidal reefs of South Africa’s Agulhas ecoregion, including those in Algoa Bay, have proved to be a latrunculid sponge biodiversity hotspot. − The initial investigations of the bioactive pyrroloiminoquinone metabolites from Algoa Bay latrunculid sponges focused on three species: T. pedunculata , Strongylodesma algoanesis , and Latrunculia bellae …”

The colourful chemistry of South African latrunculid sponges

“…15 The genus Latrunculia, comprising some 30 species of which over a half occur in the southern hemisphere, was further expanded to include another three new South African species: L. algoaensis, collected from Algoa Bay and L. gotzi and L. kerwathi collected from deep water reefs situated on the Agulhas continental shelf off South Africa. 16 Latrunculid sponges from the genus Sceptrella are also deep water sponges; however, no representatives of this genus have yet been discovered off the South African coast and this genus appears confined to the northern and western Atlantic Ocean. 1,17,18 The genera Bomba and Latrunclava have recently been added to the family Latrunculiidae, and representatives of these two genera are similarly not known to occur off southern Africa.…”