Mycale (Aegogropila) serpens (Von Lendenfeld 1888)
- Dataset
- Mycale species of the tropical Indo-West Pacific (Porifera, Demospongiae, Poecilosclerida)
- Rank
- SPECIES
Classification
- kingdom
- Animalia
- phylum
- Porifera
- class
- Demospongiae
- order
- Poecilosclerida
- family
- Mycalidae
- genus
- Mycale
- species
- Mycale serpens
description
We queried the World Porifera Database (Van Soest et al. 2020) and added the above results from our Indo-West Pacific Mycale (Aegogropila) study to arrive at the current tentative estimate of known accepted species, which numbers 47. Their distribution over the world oceans summarized as the numbers of species found in Marine Ecoregions of the World (cf. Spalding et al. 2007) is presented in Fig. 16. The subgenus is widespread in warmer and temperate waters, with a few (sub-) Antarctic species, and with the highest species density in the Mediterranean-Atlantic regions. This is likely an effect of collecting efforts. Other high diversity regions are the Caribbean and Indonesia. We take here the opportunity to remove the homonymy between Mycale (Aegogropila) adhaerens subsp. fibrosa Koltun, 1958 (senior primary homonym) and Mycale (Mycale) fibrosa Boury-Esnault & Van Beveren, 1982 (junior primary homonym), by erecting Mycale (Mycale) bouryesnaultae nom. nov. as a replacement name for the junior name, named after Nicole Boury-Esnault. Taken together, the species of this subgenus are representative of the distribution pattern of the entire genus Mycale (cf. also below Fig. 130).
discussion
Comment. Although the occurrence of this species is outside our target region, it is possible it may be found to occur more northward. The spiculation reminds of West Australian Mycale (Carmia) cockburniana Hentschel, 1911, but that species lacks ectosomal specialization and it has two sizes of anisochelae (cf. below).
distribution
Distribution. E coast of Australia (Port Jackson).