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Five new sponge species (Porifera: Demospongiae) of subtropical or tropical affinities from the coast of Lebanon (eastern Mediterranean)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 December 2007

Jean Vacelet
Affiliation:
Centre d'Océanologie de Marseille, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS UMR 6540 DIMAR, Station Marine d'Endoume, rue Batterie des Lions, 13007 Marseille, France
Ghazi Bitar
Affiliation:
Lebanese University, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Natural Sciences, Hadath, Lebanon
Sophie Carteron
Affiliation:
Impact Mer, Bd Amilcar Cabral, 97200 Fort de France, France
Helmut Zibrowius
Affiliation:
Centre d'Océanologie de Marseille, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS UMR 6540 DIMAR, Station Marine d'Endoume, rue Batterie des Lions, 13007 Marseille, France
Thierry Perez
Affiliation:
Centre d'Océanologie de Marseille, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS UMR 6540 DIMAR, Station Marine d'Endoume, rue Batterie des Lions, 13007 Marseille, France

Abstract

Five new species of sponges are described from the coast of Lebanon in the eastern Mediterranean, Levantine Basin. Euryspongia raouchensis (Dysideidae), Liosina blastifera (Dictyonellidae) and Niphates toxifera (Niphatidae) belong to genera that are new for the Mediterranean but widely distributed in the tropics. Cinachyrella levantinensis (Tetillidae) and Ciocalypta carballoi (Halichondriidae) are described in genera with a restricted distribution in the Mediterranean, which have affinities with species from the Atlantic West African coast. These species do not appear to be lessepsian migrants, but are interpreted as remnants of an ancient thermophilous fauna that survived in the easternmost part of the Mediterranean.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2007 Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom

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