Abstract
The sponge fauna of the Western Mediterranean stands as one of the most studied in the world. Yet sampling new habitats and a poorly studied region like the Balearic Islands highlights once again our limited knowledge of this group of animals. This work focused on demosponges of the order Tetractinellida collected in several research surveys (2016-2021) on a variety of ecosystems of the Balearic Islands, including shallow caves, seamounts and trawl fishing grounds, in a broad depth range (0-725 m). Tetractinellid material from the North Atlantic and more than twenty type specimens were also examined and, for some, re-described in this work. All species were barcoded with the traditional molecular markers COI (Folmer fragment) and 28S (C1-C2 or C1-D2 fragment). A total of 36 species were identified, mostly belonging to the family Geodiidae (15 species), thereby bringing the number of tetractinellids recorded in the Balearic Islands from 15 to 39. Eight species from this study are new: Stelletta mortarium sp. nov., Penares cavernensis sp. nov., Penares isabellae sp. nov., Geodia bibilonae sp. nov., Geodia microsphaera sp. nov. and Geodia matrix sp. nov. from the Balearic Islands; Geodia phlegraeioides sp. nov. and Caminus xavierae sp. nov. from the North East Atlantic. Stelletta dichoclada and Erylus corsicus are reported for the first time since their description in Corsica in 1983. Pachastrella ovisternata is documented for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea. Finally, after comparisons of type material, we propose new synonymies: Geodia anceps as a junior synonym of Geodia geodina, Erylus cantabricus as a junior synonym of Erylus discophorus and Spongosorites maximus as a junior synonym of Characella pachastrelloides.
Keywords:
Barcoding; Cryptic species; Fishing grounds; Integrative Taxonomy; Marine caves; Mesophotic; Porifera; Tetractinellida.
©2024 Díaz et al.
MeSH terms
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Animals
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Biodiversity
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Caves
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DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic
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Ecosystem
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Phylogeny
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Porifera* / anatomy & histology
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Porifera* / classification
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Spain
Grants and funding
The project LIFE IP INTEMARES is coordinated by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Spanish Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge and receives financial support from the European Union’s LIFE program (LIFE15 IPE ES 012). MEDITS surveys are co-funded by the European Union through the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), within the National Program of collection, management and use of data in the fisheries sector and support for scientific advice regarding the Common Fisheries Policy. Julio A. Díaz was supported by a predoctoral contract co-funded by the Regional Government of the Balearic Islands and the European Social Fund (FPI/2178/2018) and received a mobility grant (MOB_008_2019) by the Conselleria de Fons Europeus, Universitat i Cultura del Govern de les Illes Balears that allowed Julio A. Díaz to carry out a stay at the Uppsala University. Paco Cárdenas was supported by the SponBIODIV project, a 2021-2022 BiodivProtect joint call for research proposals, under the Biodiversa+ Partnership co-funded by the European Commission and the Swedish funding organization FORMAS (project#2022-01709). This publication was made possible with the support of the project “Improvement of the scientific and technical knowledge for the sustainability of demersal fisheries in the western Mediterranean” (SosMed) funded by Next Generation European funds (Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan), for the publication fees, with an agreement between the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and CSIC by means of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography. There was no additional external funding received for this study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.