Six new species of glass sponges (Porifera: Hexactinellida) from the north-eastern Pacific Ocean

Abstract

Six new species of Hexactinellida are described from hard bottom communities of shelf, canyon and seamounts of the west coast of North America: Washington, British Columbia and Gulf of Alaska. They were collected by a variety of methods, trawl, manned submersible, and robot submersible, and hence vary greatly in condition. The six species comprise additions to five different families of the subclass Hexasterophora, Farreidae ( Farrea omniclavata sp. nov. and F. truncata sp. nov.), Euretidae ( Chonelasma oreia sp. nov.), Euplectellidae ( Amphidiscella lecus sp. nov.), Leucopsacidae ( Oopsacas olympicus sp. nov.) and Rossellidae ( Acanthascus malacus sp. nov.). These additions represent an increase of 29% to the known species of Hexactinellida in this area. A completely unique form of defended tabulate stalk is described for A. lecus . The species Chauoplectella spinifera is transferred to Oopsacas .