Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Nature 60

Studies on Southwest Pacific Hexactinellida 2: two new hexactinosid glass sponges from the Norfolk Ridge (New Caledonia EEZ)

Citation

Reiswig, H.M. & Kelly, M. 2017. Studies on Southwest Pacific Hexactinellida 2: two new hexactinosid glass sponges from the Norfolk Ridge (New Caledonia EEZ). Memoirs of the Queensland Museum - Nature 60: 101–112. https://doi.org/10.17082/j.2204-1478.60.2017.2016-17

Accepted

20 December 2016

Published online

28 February 2017

Peer reviewed

Yes

DOI

https://doi.org/10.17082/j.2204-1478.60.2017.2016-17

Keywords

Hexactinellida, Hexactinosida, Euretidae, Tretodictyidae, Cyrtaulon, Heterorete, systematics, Norfolk Ridge, New Caledonian EEZ

Abstract 

Two new hexactinosid dictyonal glass sponges (Class Hexactinellida Schmidt, Order Hexactinosida Schrammen) are described from Seamount Banc Antigonia on the southern New Caledonian slope of the Norfolk Ridge. Heterorete norfolkense sp. nov. (Family Euretidae Zittel) shares many characters with the type species, Heterorete pulchrum Dendy, 1916, from northcentral Indian Ocean, but the Norfolk Ridge specimens have thinner walls, smaller diameter tubes, loose surface pentactins (absent in H. pulchrum, uncommon in H. norfolkense sp. nov.) and two classes of discohexasters (vs 1 class in H. pulchrum). This new species is only the second known world-wide and represents a new genus record for the region. Cyrtaulon caledoniensis sp. nov. (Family Tretodictyidae Schulze) differs significantly in the form and dimensions of some of the spicules from the western tropical Atlantic type species, C. sigsbeei (Schmidt, 1880) and C. solutus Schulze, 1886 from the Banda Sea, Indonesia. The species also represents a first record of the genus for the South Pacific and only the third known species world-wide.