Sim-Smith, C.; Kelly, M. (2015) The Marine Fauna of New Zealand: Sponges in the family Geodiidae (Demospongiae: Astrophorina). Wellington, NZ: NIWA (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research). NIWA Biodiversity Memoir 128, 102 p.
Abstract
The Geodiidae Gray, 1867 of New Zealand (Demospongiae Sollas, 1885: Tetractinellida Marshall, 1876: Astrophorina Sollas, 1887) are reviewed and inventoried from new and existing collections within the NIWA Invertebrate Collection at Wellington, with more than 300 specimens examined and registered, four of which are from the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Prior to this work, only four species of Geodiidae were described from New Zealand: Erylus niger Bergquist, 1968; Geodia rex Dendy, 1924; Geodia regina Dendy, 1924; and Geodia vestigifera (Dendy, 1924). We add three new species to the subfamily Erylinae Sollas, 1888: E. fallax n. sp., Caminus primus n. sp. and Pachymatisma nodosa n. sp., the latter two species being first records of these genera in New Zealand waters. In the subfamily Geodiinae Sollas, 1888 we add fourteen new species of Geodia to the described fauna (G. campbellensis n. sp., G. chathamensis n. sp., G. copiosa n. sp., G. ewok n. sp., G. harpago n. sp., G. kermadecensis n. sp., G. leosimi n. sp., G. margarita n. sp., G. praelonga n. sp., G. sadiemillsae n. sp., G. sagitta n. sp., G. tenera n. sp., G. vadi n. sp., and G. williami n. sp.). Previously described species (E. niger, G. regina, G. rex, G. vestigifera and G. vaubani Lévi & Lévi, 1983), the latter recorded here from the vicinity of Norfolk Island in the Australian EEZ, have been re-examined and redescribed, including new scanning electron microscope (SEM) images. This study brings the total described New Zealand Geodiidae fauna to 22 species.
