Timea berlincki Leite, Fonseca, Leal & Hajdu, 2015, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Leite, Dora M. B.
name: Fonseca, Cássio A.
name: Leal, Camille V.
name: Hajdu, Eduardo
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Porifera
Demospongiae
Hadromerida
Timeidae
Timea
Timea berlincki

description: Timea berlincki sp. nov.
(Fig. 2; Tab. 1)
Diagnosis. Encrusting Timea, presenting straight or slightly curved subtylostyles as megascleres, with irregular elongated tyle (106–630 Μm length, 2–10 Μm width, and 2–12 Μm tyle width), and two categories of microscleres: spheroxyasters with entirely spined rays (7–17 Μm diameter), and tylasters with a crown of thorns on the tip (8–20 Μm diameter).
Material examined. Holotype. MNRJ 18413 A, Hípica, Ilha do Papagaio (22°53'54.89"S – 41°58'41.95"W, Cabo Frio, RJ, Brazil), 11.1m depth, E. Hajdu coll., 0 9 May 2014.
Paratype. MNRJ 4056, Saco do Cherne (22°57'33.4"S – 42°00'23.8"W, Arraial do Cabo, RJ, Brazil), 5–10m depth, E. Hajdu & E. Vilanova coll., 0 9 April 2001.
Additional material. MNRJ 5797, 5904, Ilha de Búzios (aprox. 23°48'11.2"S 45°08'35.4"W, São Sebastião, SP, Brazil), 15–16m depth, E. Hajdu & C. Santos coll., 30 April 2002; MNRJ 5804, 5816, Celada, Baía dos Castelhanos (aprox. 23°51'58.4"S 45°15'26.3"W, Ilha de São Sebastião, Ilhabela, SP, Brazil), 8m depth, E. Hajdu & M. Carvalho coll., 0 1 May 2002; MRNJ 5823, Laje da Serraria (aprox.. 23°48'46.1"S 45°13'38.5"W, Ilha de São Sebastião, Ilhabela, SP, Brazil), 12m depth, U. Pinheiro & M. Ventura coll., 0 1 May 2002.
Comparative material. Timea cf. berlincki sp. nov. – MNRJ 2612, Baía de Todos os Santos (12°51'01.4"S 38°38'03.4"W, Salvador, BA, Brazil), 26m depth, E. Hajdu et al. coll., 0 7 August 1999.
Timea mixta – YPM 8954, Piedade (aprox. 8°10'18.7"S 34°54'45.7"W, near Recife, PE, Brazil), J. Laborel coll. G.J. Hechtel det. – fragment deposited under MNRJ 8123.
Timea stellifasciata – MNHN.LBI.NBE 959, Calypso st. 23 (9°45'S 35°35'W, off Alagoas, Brazil), 32m depth, N. Boury-Esnault coll./det, 21 November 1961 – fragment deposited under UFRJPOR 3380.
Description. External morphology. Thinly encrusting, 0.5 mm thick on average. Total area of the specimen is ca. 62 cm ², now fragmented into two, 29 cm ² and 33 cm ² respectively. Color in life was orange-brown (Fig. 2 a), becoming brownish beige after fixation in ethanol (Fig. 2 b). Surface appears smooth to the naked eye, but is microhispid under a compound microscope. It bears irregular, frequently interconnected meandering grooves, reaching up to 1.5 mm in width (Fig. 2 a). Numerous oscula inside the grooves. Ostia not conspicuous.
Skeleton. Ectosome composed of a crust of asters and occasional tangentially disposed subtylostyles. Choanosome comprises asters scattered all over and oblique tracts of subtylostyles connecting the base to the surface. Tracts can be 4‒8 spicules across (48‒92 µm thick), and up to 820 µm long. Subtylostyles can also be found in some parts of the basal portion of the skeleton lying parallel to it (Fig. 2 c).
Spicules. Megascleres. Subtylostyles straight to very slightly bent, with irregular elongated tyles and hastate to blunt extremities (Fig. 2 d). Microscleres. Spheroxyasters, entirely acanthose, with conical rays ending in sharp or blunt extremities. Spines are straight and sharp, rarely round (Fig. 2 e). Tylasters, smooth, with nearly perfectly cylindrical rays ending in extremities covered with distally-oriented spines, reminiscent of crowns (Fig. 2 f). Smaller and completely smooth asters were also found and considered to be growth forms of either category (Fig. 2 g, Table 1).
Ecology. The holotype was found in the light-exposed surface of a small pebble, shared with another Timea herein described, covering the underside of the rock. Water temperature was 21ºC at the time of collection. Other specimens collected in São Paulo state were usually found in the sciophilous portion of pebbles and boulders. The specimen from Bahia was also retrieved from the exposed surface of rocky substrate, but from warmer waters (25– 28ºC).
Distribution. The species is so far known from the coasts of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (type locality), between 23º51’– 22º53’S (Fig. 1).
Etymology. The species is dedicated to our friend Prof. Dr. Roberto Berlink for his sincere interest and dedicated participation in the growth of sponge taxonomic expertise in Brazil, and for having subsidized the costs of this collecting expedition in particular.
Spherostrongylaster to
MNRJ 18413 L: 310–382–436 (±35.5) tylaster:
Timea clandestina sp. nov. W: 2.4–4.8–7.2 (±1.4) --- ---
6.0–12.3–20.4 (±4.6)
HOLOTYPE TW: 4.8–6.9–9.6 (±1.0) 14–18 Rays
Remarks. All known species of Timea were tabulated together with their skeletal, growth form and provenance (Table 2). Of these, four species come closer in terms of morphological characters to T. berlincki sp.nov., viz. Timea aurantiaca, T. crassa, T. hallezi var. crassa (sensu Lévi, 1952) and T. juantotoi. None of them, neither the second new species described below, possess the stout tylasters with smooth rays and prominent crown of thorns seen in T. berlincki sp.nov., which is thus convincingly referred to a new species.
Specimen MNRJ 2612 is here tentatively referred to Timea cf. berlincki sp.nov. on account of its occurrence in a distinct ecoregion (Eastern Brazil), and possession of rare larger euasters. Additional specimens of Timea from Bahia should be studied together, so that a better understanding of Timea diversity in the region can be achieved.
description: Published as part of Leite, Dora M. B., Fonseca, Cássio A., Leal, Camille V. & Hajdu, Eduardo, 2015, Two new species of Timea from the Southwest Atlantic (Timeidae, Demospongiae, Porifera), pp. 161-181 in Zootaxa 4034 (1) on pages 163-166, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4034.1.8, http://zenodo.org/record/238054