Haliclona (Flagellia) anataria (Lévi & Lévi, 1983) subgen. et comb. nov.

Gellius anatarius Lévi & Lévi, 1983: 976, fig. 37.

Description (from Lévi & Lévi 1983)

Small grey specimen of 2 × 4 mm encrusting the internal valve of a bivalve mollusk. The surface and interior is clathrate, with cavities of 0.5–2 mm diameter. The skeletal architecture is reticulated and irregularly unispicular. Oxeas are 650–800 × 25–30 μm, flagellosigmas ovoid with upturned long endings and wide-angled short endings, longest axis 125–130 μm, width 70–85 μm, normal sigmas (common) 100–120 × 2–3 μm.

Distribution and ecology

New Caledonia, 22.5333° S, 166.4167° E, depth 430–500 m (Marine Ecoregion New Caledonia).

Remarks

The name anatarius (‘duck-like’, referring to the upturned long ending) is changed to anataria to match the female gender of Haliclona. Due to the large oxeas and sigmas this species can clearly be associated with the known species of Haliclona (Flagellia) subgen. nov. The flagellosigmas are similar in shape to those of species from nearby Indonesia (H. (F.) indonesiae subgen. et sp. nov., H. (F.) hamata, H. (F.) hentscheli subgen. et nom. nov.), of the Seychelles species H. (F.) amirantensis subgen. et sp. nov., and to a lesser extent of the Guyanan H. (F.) hajdui subgen. et sp. nov.

Lévi (1993) provided an additional New Caledonia deep-water (500 m) record of material belonging to Haliclona (Flagellia) subgen. nov. (reported as a Gellius flagellifer), which is definitely not assignable to H. (F.) anataria, as it has oxeas of 300–350 × 10 μm, flagellosigmas with straight long endings, 70–105 μm, and two size categories of sigmas, 25–35 and 40–55 μm. Further study is necessary to determine whether it belongs to H. (F.) flagellifera or perhaps to one of the above described species, e.g., H. (F.) hentscheli subgen. et nom. nov.