A new species of Axinyssa Lendenfeld, 1897 (Porifera, Demospongiae, Halichondrida) from the Senegalese coast

Abstract

Axinyssa djiferi, a new species of Axinyssa Lendenfeld, 1897 (Porifera, Demospongiae, Halichondrida) is described from the mangrove roots along the Senegalese coast. This species is close to the type species of the genus Axinyssa topsenti Lendenfeld, 1897 described from the Indian Ocean. Both share two categories of oxea, presence of fistules with apical oscules, conules in which the choanosomal tracts end in brushes and tangential skeleton between the conules. They differ in the size of the oxea, the shape of the smaller oxeas, the type of spicule in the ectosomal tangential skeleton, and in their respective geographical distributions. The description of this new species gives grounds for reassessing the synonymy between Axinyssa and Pseudaxinyssa Burton, 1931.