Desmoxya, HALLMANN, 1917

Morrow, Christine, Cárdenas, Paco, Boury-Esnault, Nicole, Picton, Bernard, Mccormack, Grace, Soest, Rob Van, Collins, Allen, Redmond, Niamh, Maggs, Christine, Sigwart, Julia & Allcock, Louise A., 2019, Integrating morphological and molecular taxonomy with the revised concept of Stelligeridae (Porifera: Demospongiae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 187, pp. 31-81 : 69

GENUS DESMOXYA HALLMANN, 1917

Desmoxya Hallmann, 1917 (p. 650–654) Diagnosis (emended): Desmoxyidae with thinly encrusting or massive growth form. Choanosomal skeleton hymedesmioid to plumose, composed of tracts of strongylote megascleres and crescent-shaped, acanthose microscleres especially abundant in surface membrane. Bundles of onychaetes scattered throughout choanosome. Basal layer of erect acanthostyles present in one species.

Type species: Desmoxya lunata (Carter, 1885)

Included species: Desmoxya lunata (Carter, 1885) ; Desmoxya pelagiae Van Soest & Hooper, 2005

Hallmann (1917) speculated that the microscleres in Desmoxya lunata , which are terminally spined, crescent-shaped or sigmoidal microxea, might have been derived from sigmata. He questioned whether genera with spined microxea, such as Higginsia , Halicnemia and Desmoxya , should be included in Axinellidae . He further speculated that the acanthoxea in Desmoxya and Halicnemia were similar to those of Acanthoxa Hentschel, 1914 and could be homologous with the acanthoscleres of myxillids. Our 18S tree (Supporting Information, Fig. S2) shows that there is molecular support for Hallmann’s hypothesis (in part), because Desmoxya pelagiae clusters in Poecilosclerida . However, Halicnemia and Higginsia group with Stelligera and Paratimea in Stelligeridae : Axinellida .