Levantiniella Carella et al. 2016

Genus Levantiniella Carella et al., 2016

Synonymy: Levantinella Szitenberg et al., 2013

Definition: Tetillidae with small shallow porocalyx-like structures, with spined microxeas, without auxiliary megascleres, and without cortex (Szitenberg et al. 2013).

Diagnosis: Globular sponges attached directly to the substrate, without root spicule tufts. Surface hispid, sometimes entirely covered by sand and debris. Porocalyx-like small, rounded structures, sometimes unconspicuous due to sand coverage; oscules inconspicuous. Skeleton composed of bundles of oxeas, anatriaenes, protriaenes, and sometimes prodiaenes spirally arranged, rising from the central zone outwards and protruding the sponge surface. No cortical specialization visible in cross section. Hispidation caused chiefly by the strong fascicles of large oxeas that protrude the surface. Megascleres are large oxeas, protriaenes, and prodiaenes; microscleres are microxeas and sigmaspires. Species distributed in shallow waters of Southeastern Mediterranean Sea (Vacelet et al. 2007).

Remarks. The only species of this genus was placed in Cinachyrella on the basis of the absence of cortex and presence of porocalices (Vacelet et al. 2007). However, the revision of the paratype MNHN-DJV 97and several other specimens, which served to describe the new species, proved they have not true porocalices (as they have been defined by Boury-Esnault & Rützler 1997), but shallow open cavities. This characteristic, plus the secondary structure of the V4 region of 18S allowed retrieving a monophyletic clade separated from Cinachyrella in the parsimony phylogeny (Carella et al. 2016). Moreover, the molecular phylogeny based on several molecular markers (COI M1-M6, 18S and 28S D3-D5) also recovered a monophyletic group for Cinachyrella levantinensis, clearly separated from Cinachyrella (Szitenberg et al. 2013; Carella et al. 2016). All these morphological and molecular characteristics allowed us to include the species previously considered as C. levantinensis in the new genus Levantiniella.