Cyclacanthia cloverlyae Samaai, Govender & Kelly, 2004, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Samaai, Toufiek
name: Govender, Vasha
name: Kelly, Michelle
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2004
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Porifera
Demospongiae
Poecilosclerida
Latrunculiidae
Cyclacanthia
Cyclacanthia cloverlyae

description: Cyclacanthia cloverlyae sp. nov.
(Figs. 2 E, 3B, 4B, E, 5A, B)
Holotype material. SAM H­ 5080: Christmas reef, Umhlali, Tugela Banks region, Durban, East coast of South Africa, 29° 47 395'S, 31° 27 373 'E, 17 m, collected by C. Lawrence, EKZN, 24 July 2003.
Description. Thinly encrusting sponge forming a circular patch 9 cm long, 6 cm wide and 3 mm thick (Fig. 3 B). Surface smooth, velvety to the touch, with volcano­shaped oscules, 5 mm high x 3 mm wide at base, 1 mm at apex being closely packed (5mm apart), and a few nodular truncate areolate porefields, 3 mm high x 3 mm wide, with no poral membrane covering the opening. Texture compressible, soft and fleshy. Colour in life olive green; in preservative dark green.
Spicules. Megascleres— Styles: Smooth, straight, occasionally wavy, some centrally thickened, fusiform; 321 (273–370) x 5 (4–7) µm (Fig. 4 B, E). Microscleres— isospinodiscorhabds: The apical whorl has 3 groups of 4 spines radiating obliquely from the shaft away from the median whorl, each with one spine facing towards the spicule shaft. The apex is armoured with a double spike with a single additional spine on each primary spine. The manubrium is identical to the apical whorl, with 4 groups of 3 spines that emanate obliquely from the shaft, and one or more double spikes at the apex. The median whorl is equidistant from both apical whorl and manubrium; 3 groups of 4 spines are directed horizontally from the shaft: 32 (25–44) µm (Fig. 2 E).
Skeleton. Thick tracts 166–274 µm emanate from the deep choanosome and diverge towards the surface forming plumose tracts c. 225 µm wide. The upper choanosome has an irregular polygonal­meshed reticulation formed by wispy tracts of smooth styles (Fig. 5 A). Interstitial megascleres and microscleres are abundant. The ectosome is a thin paratangential layer of megascleres, c. 147 µm thick, and is aligned with an irregular palisade of isospinodiscorhabds (Fig. 5 B).
Ecology. The sponges were found on a rocky reef at 17 m depth in the Tugela Banks area of Umhlali, which is very turbid with visibility often less than 2 m distance. This species is rare; only a single specimen was found.
Etymology. Named for Miss Cloverley Lawrence, the co­ordinator of the EKZN reef project, who collected the specimen described here.
Remarks. Cyclacanthia cloverlyae sp. nov. is distinguished from the type species C. bellae (Samaai & Kelly) by features of external morphology and colouration; C. cloverlyae has thick nodular truncate areolate porefields, with no poral membrane, and is olive green in colour, whilst the surface of C. bellae (Samaai & Kelly) is covered with numerous tiny thin­lipped truncate areolate porefields, and is emerald green with touches of brown. C. cloverlyae sp. nov. and C. bellae (Samaai & Kelly) are further separated on the dimensions of their megascleres, those of C. cloverlyae sp. nov. being slightly smaller (Table 1), and on the smaller size and morphology of the microscleres (Table 1). The microscleres of C. cloverlyae sp. nov. are more regular and considerably less ornamented (acanthose) than those in C. bellae (Samaai & Kelly).
description: Published as part of Samaai, Toufiek, Govender, Vasha & Kelly, Michelle, 2004, Cyclacanthia n. g. (Demospongiae: Poecilosclerida: Latrunculiidae incertea sedis), a new genus of marine sponges from South African waters, and description of two new species, pp. 1-18 in Zootaxa 725 on pages 10-12, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.169508