Ekins, M.; Debitus, C.; Erpenbeck, D.; Hooper, J.N.A. (2018). A new species of the sponge Raspailia (Raspaxilla) (Porifera: Demospongiae: Axinellida: Raspailiidae) from deep seamounts of the Western Pacific. Zootaxa. 4410 (2): 379.
Ekins, M.; Debitus, C.; Erpenbeck, D.; Hooper, J.N.A.
2018
A new species of the sponge <i>Raspailia</i> (<i>Raspaxilla</i>) (Porifera: Demospongiae: Axinellida: Raspailiidae) from deep seamounts of the Western Pacific
A new species of Raspailia (Raspaxilla) frondosa sp. nov. is described from the deep seamounts of the Norfolk and New Caledonia Ridges. The morphology of the species resembles that of a frond or a fern, and its unique highly compressed axial skeleton of interlaced spongin fibres without spicules in combination with a radial extra axial skeleton of a perpendicular palisade of spicules, differentiate it from all other species of the subgenus. This species is compared morphologically to all 18 other valid species described in Raspailia (Raspaxilla).