Three new species of Sollasella (Porifera: Demospongiae: Axinellida: Raspailiidae) from Western Australia

WA Museum Records and Supplements | Updated 2 years ago

ABSTRACT – The sponge genus Sollasella has three named species, two from eastern Australia, (Queensland and New South Wales) and one from the western Arabian Sea. Using a combination of morphological and molecular data, we describe three new species from northern Western Australia. We sequenced Cytochrome Oxidase I and two different fragments of 28S to reconstruct genealogical relationships among species in the genus. Sollasella suttonorum sp. nov. is closest morphologically to the two previously known Australian species: S. digitata Lendenfeld, 1888 and S. moretonensis van Soest, Hooper, Beglinger and Erpenbeck 2006. However, S. ananas sp. nov., and S. maraca sp. nov. show a novel clubbed or oval (rather than digitate or lobed) morphology. These two species contain a unique spicule type (anatriaene-like) not previously reported in the Axinellida. As a consequence of this study the species diversity of Sollasella is doubled to six species, with all species confined to the Indian and Pacific oceans.

Author(s) Jane Fromont and Nerida G. Wilson
Volume
Records 37 :
Article Published
2022
Page Number
1

DOI
issn.0312-3162.37.2022.001-021