Subgenus Raspailia (Raspailia) Nardo, 1833

Museums

Regional Maps

• Raspailia Nardo, G.D. 1833. Auszug aus einem neuen System der Spongiarien, wornach bereits die Aufstellung in der Universitäts-Sammlung zu Padua gemacht ist. Isis Oken, coll. 519–523. [col. 522] [originally spelled Raspelia Nardo, emended Nardo 1847; also misspelled as Rasalia and Raspalia by Gray, J.E. 1867. Notes on the arrangement of sponges, with the description of some new genera. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1867: 492–558 pls 27–28].

  Type species:

   Raspailia viminalis Schmidt, 1862 by subsequent designation, see Vosmaer, G.C.J. 1912. On the distinction between the genera Axinella, Phakellia, Acanthella a. o. Festschrift Spengel. Zoologische Jahrbücher 15: 307-322 pls 15-16 [313].
• Dictyocylindrus Bowerbank, J.S. 1862. On the anatomy and physiology of the Spongiadae. Part III. On the generic characters, the specific characters, and on the method of examination. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 152: 1087-1135 pls 72-74 [1108].

  Type species:

   Spongia hispida Montagu, 1818 by original designation.
• Abila Gray, J.E. 1867. Notes on the arrangement of sponges, with the description of some new genera. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1867: 492-558 pls 27-28 [522].

  Type species:

   Raspailia freyeri Schmidt, 1862 by monotypy.
• Echinaxia Hallmann, E.F. 1916. A revision of the genera with microscleres included, or provisionally included, in the family Axinellidae, with descriptions of some Australian species. Part 2. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 41: 495-552 6 figs pls 29/4, 30-32, 33/1-5, [543].

  Type species:

   Axinella frondula Whitelegge, 1907 by original designation.
• Axinectya Hallmann, E.F. 1917. On the genera Echinaxia and Rhabdosigma. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 42: 391-405 2 figs pls 21-22 [393].

  Type species:

   Axinectya mariana Ridley & Dendy, 1886 by original designation.
• Abilana Strand, E. 1924. Miscellanea nomenclatorica zoologica et palaeontologica. Archiv für Naturgeschichte 92A(b): 31-36 [33] [unnecessary replacement name for Abila Gray, 1867 as Abila Gray (p. 522) has seniority over Abila Gray (p. 539) (see Microcionidae)].

  Type species:

   Raspailia freyeri Schmidt, 1862 by monotypy.
• Valedictyum Laubenfels, M.W. de 1936. A discussion of the sponge fauna of the Dry Tortugas in particular, and the West Indies in general, with material for a revision of the families and orders of the Porifera. (Tortugas Lab. Paper No. 467). Publication of the Carnegie Institution of Washington Washington 30: 1-225 22 pls 1 map [102].

  Type species:

   Raspailia vestigifera Dendy, 1896 by monotypy.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Hooper, J.N.A. 1991. Revision of the family Raspailiidae (Porifera: Demospongiae), with descriptions of Australian species. Invertebrate Taxonomy 5(6): 1179-1418 [1195]

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IMCRA

Timor Transition (1), Northern Shelf Province (25), Northwest Shelf Transition (26), Northwest Shelf Province (27), Southwest Shelf Province (31), Spencer Gulf Shelf Province (33), Western Bass Strait Shelf Transition (34), Bass Strait Shelf Province (35), Tasmanian Shelf Province (36), Southeast Shelf Transition (37), Central Eastern Shelf Province (38), Central Eastern Shelf Transition (39), Northeast Shelf Province (40), Northeast Shelf Transition (41)

Diagnosis

Digitate and branching Raspailia, usually with a highly hispid surface; choanosomal skeleton composed of distinctive axial and extra-axial components; axial skeleton compressed with reticulate spongin fibres cored by multispicular tracts of principal styles or sometimes oxeas, and echinated by acanthostyles; extra-axial skeleton primarily plumose or radial, with longer principal spicules forming multispicular tracts and interconnected by sparse uni- or paucispicular fibres; extra-axial tracts eventually protruding through the surface, with the larger spicules surrounded by bouquets of ectosomal styles or anisoxeas at the point of their insertion to the surface. Megascleres include styles (and/or or less commonly oxeas or oxeote modifications to styles) of at least 2–3 size classes, varying from robust and long to small, sinuous and vestigial, and echinating acanthostyles that are microcionid-like with a subtylote base, usually a straight shaft, and evenly spined or with an aspinose region proximal to the basal swelling.

ID Keys

See Family Raspailiidae Diagnosis

Diagnosis References

Hooper, J.N.A. 2002. Family Raspailiidae Hentschel, 1923. pp. 469-510 in Hooper, J.N.A. & van Soest, R.W.M. (eds). Systema Porifera: A guide to the classification of sponges. New York : Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers Vol. 1. [473]

History of changes