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Porifera name details
From editor or global species database
Status The variety was described by Topsent from Prince Albert 1er Monaco Cruises Stat. 899, Azores, 37.95°N 29.233°W, depth 200 m (type material in the Monaco Museum and slides in the Paris Museum). The variety was largely ignored by authors reporting on the sponges from the Azores (e.g. Topsent 1928; Boury-Esnault & Lopes 1985) and the Western Mediterranean (e.g. Pulitzer-Finali 1983). Differences with the typical variety of Hymedesmia unistellata Topsent (1892: xxvii, from Cap l’Abeille, Banyuls, S of France, 42.4778°N 3.1556°E, holotype MNHN DT 2446) noted by Topsent were longer and thicker tylostyles (up to 1400 μm vs up to 400 μm) and asters have spined rays vs. smooth. The latter difference is probably not tenable, but the tylostyle size difference was reason for Lehnert & Heimler (2001) to key out the present variety as a separate taxon. Furthermore, the thin encrustations of both the present and the typical variety differ as the present variety is hispid, whereas the typical variety is “almost” smooth (confirmed by Pulitzer 1983). The two major differences, the hispid surface and much longer and thicker tylostyles appear sufficient to indicate specific difference and accordingly Van Soest (2024: 78) proposed to recognize the present variety as Timea aspera (Topsent, 1904). [details]
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