Pericharax orientalis Van Soest & De Voogd 2015
Creators: name: Van, Rob W. M.
name: De, Nicole J.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Porifera
Calcarea
Clathrinida
Leucettidae
Pericharax
Pericharax orientalis

description: Pericharax orientalis Van Soest & De Voogd, 2015
Figs 51a–h
Pericharax heteroraphis; sensu Dendy 1913: 13 (not: Pericharax carteri var. heteroraphis Poléjaeff, 1883: 66).
Pericharax orientalis Van Soest & De Voogd, 2015: 57, figs 41a–e, 42a–e.
Material examined. RMNH Por. 10157, Maldives, Faafu Atoll, Wallstreet, 3.119°N 72.979556°E, depth 12 m, scuba, coll. N.J. de Voogd, field nr. MAD10/MAS118, 20 February 2015; ZMA Por. 17996, Mauritius, 20.0304°S 57.5364°E, depth 7–28 m, scuba, coll. P. Daniel Marie, field nr. MO4SP5TB, 2014; ZMA Por. 18308, Mauritius, 20.0378°S 57.5361°E, depth 10–20 m, scuba, coll. P. Daniel Marie, field nr. 5, December 2014; ZMA Por. 21792, Mauritius, depth 10–20 m, scuba, coll. P. Daniel Marie, field nr. VI sp.17, December 2010.
Description. Since this species was treated extensively recently (see Van Soest & De Voogd, 2015), we provide here only a short description. Large, yellow-green, upright or volcanoe-shaped sponges (Fig. 51a), with faintly ridged or shallowly grooved sides and prominent wide central vent or oscule. Occasionally two or more individuals are attached forming a small group. Sizes up to 10 cm or more in height, 10 cm or more in diameter. Surface may be covered in tiny tubes of syllid worms. In preservation, specimens become red-brown (Fig. 51b). Consistency hard, rough to the touch.
Aquiferous system. Leuconoid.
Skeleton. Cortical region with a thin layer of small sagittal triactines forming rounded subdermal spaces, carried by tangentially arranged subcortical giant triactines. Choanosomal skeleton built predominantly by small triactines supporting the leuconoid canal system. The atrial walls are formed predominantly by tetractines with their apical actines protruding into the atrial cavity (Fig. 51c).
Spicules. (Figs 51d–h) Giant triactines, small cortical triactines, small choanosomal triactines, atrial tetractines.
Giant triactines (Fig. 51d), equiradiate, equiangular, 396– 1386 –2310 x 28– 124.3 –222 µm.
Cortical triactines (Fig. 51e), irregular, slightly sagittal, with all three actines slightly different and somewhat wavy, 54– 88 –119 x 6 – 8.1 –11 µm.
Small triactines (Fig. 51f), regular, equiradiate, equiangular, 126– 181 –228 x 12 – 15.9 –23 µm.
Tetractines (Figs 51g –h), with basal radiate system equiradiate, equiangular, actines 106– 156 –192 x 7 – 11.3 –17 µm, apical actines (Fig. 51h) thin, mostly wavy or curved, but may be straight, 25– 67 –108 x 4 – 6.4 –10 µm.
Distribution and ecology. Maldives, Mauritius, elsewhere widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific tropical region, on reefs down to 20 m or deeper.
Remarks. Pericharax peziza Dendy, 1913 is a small cup-shaped sponge, pale yellow in alcohol, which has not been found again after its original description from Cargados Carajos. Its skeletal architecture and spiculation is similar to P. orientalis.
We obtained sequences of the holotype of Pericharax orientalis from Indonesia (RMNH Por. 5259) and of the above described RMNH Por 10157 from the Maldives and in our phylogenetic analysis (Fig. 2C) both ended up in the same clade at moderate bootstrap value.
Recently, Leocorny et al. (2017) described several new Pericharax species from Western Australia, P. vallii Leocorny et al., 2017, and P.crypta Leocorny et al., 2017. These species clearly differ from the present specimens in aspects of habitus and spicule sizes. Leocorny et al. (2017) found that Leucetta and Pericharax could not be retrieved as monophyletic, and this is confirmed in our Fig. 2C.
description: Published as part of Van, Rob W. M. & De, Nicole J., 2018, Calcareous sponges of the Western Indian Ocean and Red Sea, pp. 1-160 in Zootaxa 4426 (1) on pages 87-89, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4426.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/1271239