New species in the sponge genus Tsitsikamma (Poecilosclerida, Latrunculiidae) from South Africa.

Shirley Parker-Nance,Rosemary Dorrington,Samantha Waterworth,Tara Walmsley,Storm Hilliar

doi:10.3897/zookeys.874.32268

Abstract

The genus Tsitsikamma Samaai & Kelly, 2002 is to date exclusively reported from South Africa. Three species are known from the southern coast: Tsitsikamma favus Samaai & Kelly, 2002, from the Garden Route National Park Tsitsikamma Marine Protected Area (MPA) and Algoa Bay; T. pedunculata Samaai, Gibbons, Kelly and Davies-Coleman, 2003, collected from Cape Recife in St. Francis Bay, and T. scurra Samaai, Gibbons, Kelly and Davies-Coleman, 2003, collected from a wreck site in a small bay west of Hout Bay on the west coast of South Africa. Here two new species are described: Tsitsikamma michaeli Parker-Nance, sp. nov., a small green purse-like species, collected from Algoa Bay, and Tsitsikamma nguni Parker-Nance, sp. nov., from The Garden Route National Park, Tsitsikamma MPA. Additional morphological characteristics, spicule morphology, and distribution records are provided for T. favus and T. pedunculata from Algoa Bay. The phylogenetic relationship of these five Tsitsikamma species is investigated.

Highlights

The family Latrunculiidae Topsent 1922 consists of seven genera: Bomba Kelly, Reiswig & Samaai, 2016; Cyclacanthia Samaai, Govender & Kelly, 2004; Latrunclava Kelly, Reiswig & Samaai, 2016; Latrunculia du Bocage, 1869; Sceptrella Schmidt, 1870; Strongylodesma Lévi, 1969; and Tsitsikamma Samaai & Kelly, 2002
We provide additional morphological characteristics and new information on the geographical distribution of known species, describe two new species and investigate the integrity of two morphological groups considered using 28S rRNA gene sequence analysis
The majority of the samples, type specimens and reference material are lodged with the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB) a National Research Foundation (NRF) National Collection facility and have the prefix SAIAB

Summary

Introduction

The family Latrunculiidae Topsent 1922 consists of seven genera: Bomba Kelly, Reiswig & Samaai, 2016; Cyclacanthia Samaai, Govender & Kelly, 2004; Latrunclava Kelly, Reiswig & Samaai, 2016; Latrunculia du Bocage, 1869; Sceptrella Schmidt, 1870; Strongylodesma Lévi, 1969; and Tsitsikamma Samaai & Kelly, 2002. The main skeletal component of both the thick tracks within the choanosome, prominent in T. favus (Samaai and Kelly 2002) and T. scurra, the reinforced stalk in T. pedunculata (Samaai et al 2003) and the delicate compressible choanosome, are anisostyles, often polytylote (Samaai and Kelly 2002, Samaai et al 2003). It is, the shape of the isochiadiscorhabd microscleres that is characteristic of the genus. Tsitsikamma favus is the first sponge reported to have Betaproteobacteria and Spirochetes as the dominant microbial taxon (Walmsley et al 2012), which are conserved within the microbiomes of six species in three genera within the Latrunculiidae (Matcher et al 2017). We provide additional morphological characteristics and new information on the geographical distribution of known species, describe two new species and investigate the integrity of two morphological groups considered using 28S rRNA gene sequence analysis

Materials and methods

Findings

Discussion