A Collection, of Porifera from Northern New Zealand, 
with Descriptions of Seventeen New Species 
Patricia R. Rergquist 1 
The material described herein has been 
collected by the author during the course of in- 
vestigations into the intertidal and sublittoral 
ecology of the sponges of Northland. 
Burton (1932), in reporting the "Discovery” 
Antarctic sponges, remarked on the relatively 
advanced state of knowledge of that fauna and 
added only 35 new species from this collection. 
In strong contrast stands the lack of knowledge 
of the littoral sponge faunas of New Zealand, 
particularly of the siliceous groups. The present 
collection contains 34 species, all relatively com- 
mon members of the northern shore faunas. 
Of this number, 17 are new species, and 11 are 
recorded for the first time from New Zealand. 
No Calcarea are included in the present study. 
They are, in general, better known than the 
Demospongiae, as most of the published work 
by Kirk dealt with this group. 
Ail type material is to be deposited in the 
Dominion Museum, Wellington. 
SYSTEMATIC DISCUSSION 
The scheme of classification followed is that 
of de Laubenfels ( 1936) . 
class DEMOSPONGIAE (Sollas) 
ORDER KERATOSA (Grant) 
family SPONGIIDAE (Gray) 
GENUS Ircinia ( Nardo ) 
Ircmia novae zealandiae , sp. nov. 
Fig. la 
OCCURRENCE: Noises Islands, Hauraki Gulf. 
12/10/56. 2 
description: The sponge Is irregularly 
palmo-digitate in shape, the surface irregularly 
conulose. Oscules are small, 1-2 mm. in diam- 
1 Department of Zoology, University of Auckland, 
New Zealand. Manuscript received August 7, 1959° 
2 In this paper, dates are given as day/ month/ year. 
eter, few in number, and indiscriminately scat- 
tered. The texture when dried is hard and the 
colour blackish-brown. The texture when fresh 
Is elastic and the colour blackish. 
The skeleton is a reticulation of strongly 
fasciculated fibres showing obvious differentia- 
tion into ascending and connective fibres. These 
fibres vary from .02 to 1.0 mm. in diameter. 
Foreign inclusions are occasionally present, 
sometimes filling the whole of a fibre. Filaments 
are not common and are .004 mm. in diameter. 
GENUS Spongia (Linnaeus) 
Spongia reticulata (Lendenfeld) 
Eu spongia reticulata (Lendenfeld, 1386, p. 
541). 
Hippospongia reticulata (Lendenfeld, 1889, p. 
300, pi. 13, fig. 3). 
OCCURRENCE: Rangitoto sublittoral fringe. 
DISTRIBUTION: Australia. 
FAMILY DYSIDEIDAE (Gray) 
GENUS Dysidea (Johnston) 
Dysidea cristagalli, sp. nov. 
Fig. lb 
OCCURRENCE: Noises Islands, 2/5/37 (coll 
L. B. Moore). Rangitoto, 7/6/57. In rock pools 
in caves. 
DESCRIPTION : The sponge is erect, tubular in 
shape, with several tubes coalescing to give a 
tubula-flabellate condition. The surface is uneven 
and the oscules apical, giving access to deep 
cloacae. The texture is firm and friable, the 
colour ash-grey. The skeleton is an irregular, 
closely knit reticulation of fibres varying in 
diameter from .02 to .2 mm. and having no 
obvious distinction between ascending and con- 
nective fibres. The fibres are filled with broken 
sponge spicules. There is no special dermal skel- 
eton differentiated. 
33 
