Haliclona ( Soestella ) roslynae, Sim-Smith & Hickman & Kelly, 2021

Haliclona ( Soestella) roslynae View in CoL sp. nov.

( Fig.10 View FIGURE 10 , Table 2)

Material examined. Holotype — MCCDRS9443, Punta Vicente Roca , Isabela Island, 0.049° S, 91.558° W, 18 m, 15 Nov 2003. GoogleMaps

Type locality. Punta Vicente Roca , Isabela Island .

Habitat and distribution. Only known from type locality. Found growing on rock; 18 m.

Description. Thickly encrusting, cavernous sponge, ≤ 10 mm thick, with a densely punctate surface. Large, raised oscules, ≤ 5 mm in diameter, are scattered over the surface. Colour in life is a beautiful, translucent water- melon pink with tinges of yellow and purple, colour in ethanol is golden brown ( Fig. 10A–B View FIGURE 10 ). Texture is very soft, friable.

Skeleton. Choanosome is a loose subisotropic reticulation of small oxeas that form rounded meshes around frequent choanosomal spaces ( Fig. 10C View FIGURE 10 ). Ill-defined paucispicular primary tracts are visible in places, connected by unispicular secondary tracts ( Fig. 10D View FIGURE 10 ). Ectosome is a marked, loosely formed tangential reticulation ( Fig. 10E View FIGURE 10 ); spongin is present at nodes.

Spicules. Megascleres— small oxeas, slightly curved with sharply pointed tips; 107 (93–117) × 6 (5–7) µm (n = 20) ( Fig. 10F View FIGURE 10 ).

Etymology. Named for Roslyn Cameron, a local face and voice for Galápagos conservation representing the Charles Darwin Foundation since 1997, and liaison to the US-based Galápagos Conservancy from 2012. Roslyn was often the first point of contact for innumerable visitors, media representatives, and donors to the Galápagos.

Remarks. Haliclona ( S.) roslynae sp. nov. is a different colour in life and has smaller oxeas than Haliclona ( S.) spuma sp. nov. and has a substantially denser choanosomal and ectosomal skeleton.

Haliclona ( S.) roslynae sp. nov. can be differentiated from the only other tropical/subtropical eastern Pacific Haliclona ( Soestella) species, H. caerulea , by the lack of microscleres. The six species of Haliclona (subgenus unknown) from the eastern Pacific, as described for Haliclona ( H.) clairae sp. nov. above, all differ from this species as outlined in Table 2.