Suberites cebriones Morozov & Sabirov & Zimina 2019, sp. nov.

Suberites cebriones sp. nov. (Figure 9 (a – f))

Material examined

The holotype was collected in the central part of the Laptev Sea (75.19°N, 128.46°E); it is deposited in the Edward Eversman Zoology Museum (identification number 2.2.8.441).

Paratypes localities: one specimen from same locality as holotype (75.19°N, 128.46°E); two specimens from north of the New Siberian Islands (76.25°N, 139.05° E; 77.23°N, 137.06°E); one specimen from the central part of the Laptev Sea (76.05° N, 122.75°E).

Description

(Figure 9 (d – e)). Sponge cup shaped or club shaped (only small juvenile forms), up to 3.5 cm in height and 4 cm in width. The inner surface of cup-shaped sponge is covered with evenly scattered small pores (about 0.1 mm in diameter), forming a sieve. In the case of juvenile forms (which may easily be confused with corresponding forms of s. montalbidus) the single osculum is located on the top. Surface is smooth. The body is tolerably firm, only slightly compressible in consistency. Sometimes provided with weakly pronounced peduncle. Colour (in alcohol) is beige.

Spicules

Styles (tylo- and subtylostyles) straight, rather short-pointed (spicules with blunt apical end occasionally found), dimensions: 124.8 – 395.4 – 677 × 5.5 – 11.4 (n = 200) µm; microxea and microstrongyles centrotylote, spined, dimensions 21.3 – 41 – 67.4 (n = 60) µm and 9.87 – 19.37 – 28.22 (n = 60) µm, respectively.

Etymology

In Greek mythology, Cebriones was the illegitimate son of King Priam of Troy and participated in the Trojan War as charioteer for his half-brother Hector.

Remarks

In the examined materials, we observed that several specimens differed substantially in their outer morphology from the above-mentioned representatives of suberites montalbidus. However, the spicular analysis did not reveal any differences between them. The reason to allocate suberites cebriones sp. nov. as a new species is the uniqueness of its skeletal architecture; in the case of s. montalbidus, the microscleres are confined to the thin cortical layer, while in s. cebriones sp. nov., they are also distributed in large numbers throughout the interior (Figure 9 (a – b)).