Tsitsikamma scurra Samaai, Gibbons, Kelly & Davies-Coleman, 2003, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Samaai, Toufiek
name: Gibbons, Mark J.
name: Kelly, Michelle
name: Davies-Coleman, Mike
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2003
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Porifera
Demospongiae
Poecilosclerida
Latrunculiidae
Tsitsikamma
Tsitsikamma scurra

description: Tsitsikamma scurra sp. nov. (Figs. 3 H, 4G, 6C)
Holotype material. BMNH 2003.1.10.3: Hout Bay, near the wreck of British “The Maori”, sunk in 1909, ~ 2.5 nm offshore and north of Hout Bay, west coast near Cape Town, South Africa, 34° 02' 16''S, 18° 18' 34''E, collected by Dr Patrick L. Colin, Coral Reef Research Foundation, 31 March 2000, 28 m (0 CDN 7364­ O).
Paratype material. SAM H­ 4971: Hout Bay, near the wreck of British “The Maori”, sunk in 1909, ~ 2.5 nm offshore and north of Hout Bay, west coast near Cape Town, South Africa, 34° 02' 16''S, 18° 18' 34''E, collected by Lynden West, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, 25 January, 2003, 28 m.
Description. Sponge is massive, semispherical, sometimes thickly encrusting, up to 8 long, 4 cm wide, 5 cm high (Fig. 3 H). Texture, compressible internally with a relatively tough thick sandpapery ectosome. Surface crowded with large hollow strap­like oscular fistules, 15–20 mm high, 14 mm wide at base and 5 mm high at apex, the apex slightly expanded. Scattered between oscules are numerous fungiform areolate porefields, 8–12 mm high, 2–4 mm wide. Colour in life lime green and in preservative dark liver brown.
Spicules. Megascleres— Styles: Slightly curved, thickened centrally, two sizes; 829 (774–882) x 24 m; thinner, slightly curved centrally: 669 (585–738) x 17 m. Micro­scleres— Isochiadiscorhabds (Fig. 4G): With three whorls of conico­cylindrical tubercules, the apex of each tubercular projection is acanthose. The conico­cylindrical tubercules project at 45 to the shaft in pairs: 41 (38–45) x 8 m.
Skeleton. The overall skeleton is dominated by a thick ectosomal envelope of tangential megascleres, 230–540 m thick, extending up into the large oscular tubes. Within the envelope is a much softer choanosome containing an irregular reticulation of wispy tracts of small styles ranging in width from 180–200 µm thick (Fig. 6 C). Microscleres are abundant throughout the choanosome.
Ecology. The sponge was found on a moderately rugged rocky outcrop beneath kelp about 150 m from a ship­wreck, 28 m.
Etymology. Named for the appearance of the sponge, with elongate, flattened occasionally bent­over oscular fistules, resembling the elongate tasselled extensions on a jester’s hat.
Remarks. Species of Tsitsikamma are very clearly differentiated at the morphological and skeletal level. T. favus Samaai & Kelly is turquoise, semispherical, extremely tough and multi­chambered, with short surface extensions, while T. pedunculat a sp. nov. is pinkish­brown, stalked and bulbous. T. scurra sp. nov. is lime green (preservative­liver brown), thickly encrusting, soft and compressible, with flat hollow oscular fistules. The morphology of the microscleres further differentiates these species.
description: Published as part of Samaai, Toufiek, Gibbons, Mark J., Kelly, Michelle & Davies-Coleman, Mike, 2003, South African Latrunculiidae (Porifera: Demospongiae: Poecilosclerida): descriptions of new species of Latrunculia du Bocage, Strongylodesma Lévi, and Tsitsikamma Samaai & Kelly, pp. 1-26 in Zootaxa 371 on pages 20-21, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.156901