Poecilosclerida (Porifera : Demospongiae) from the New Caledonia lagoon

Abstract

Twenty species of shallow-water poecilosclerid demosponges are described from the lagoon and reefs of New Caledonia, including thirteen new species and six new locality records, belonging to five families and eight genera {Myxillidae (1, Acarnus), Desmacellidae (1, Neofibularia), Crellidae (1, Crella), Microcionidae 113, Clathria (Clathriopsamma), C. (Clathria), C. (Thalysias), Echinochalina (Echinochalina), E. (Protophlitaspongia)] and Raspailiidae [4 species, Raspailia (Raspailia), Ceratopsion, Aulospongus]}. The shallow-water fauna contained a mixture of endemic species (65%) and those with affinities to both northern and southern Australia, in contrast to the deeper-water fauna which was previously found to have high endemism (70%) and ancestral affinities to northern New Zealand. The non-endemic shallow-water fauna represents the easternmost extent of species' distributions in the Indo-west Pacific, and the endemic component was also usually immediately recognisable as (transformed) sister-species from Australian tropical and temperate provinces.