Taxnomy of sponges from Brazilian coast (Porifera, Demospongiae, Astrophorina) with description of two new species of unconsolidate bottoms.
1. Taxonomy. 2. Porifera. 3. Brazil. 4. Ancorinidae. 5. Southwestern Atlantic. 6. Unconsolidate bottoms
The Brazilian coast is extremely diverse in marine ecosystems, which probably contributes for the richness of sponge species on our coast, whether in shallow or deep waters, reefs or mangroves, rocky shore and even on muddy substrates. Ancorinidae (Astrophorina, Tetractinellida, Demospongiae) is among the Demospongiae families described for Brazil, currently containing 16 genus distributed around the world and approximately 400 valid species, the family is characterized by its subradial skeleton, by the presence of long oxea and triaenes as megascleres and asters, streptasters and microrabds such as microscleres. In this work, we present two new species of Ancorinidae typical of unconsolidated bottoms, one of the genus Stelletta, collected in deep waters in the State of Rio Grande do Sul (190m) in bio debris on a mud or fine sand bottom, including a taxonomic key of Brazilian species, and a new species of Tribrachium collected in shallow water from Bahia State, the second species of the genus, accompanied by a morphological taxonomic review of its type-species, Tribrachium schmidti Weltner, 1882, based on the study of the neotype and a collection from the northern and southern coast of Bahia.