Revision of species of Heteromeyenia Potts, 1881, in South America (Porifera, Spongillidae)

Abstract

Revision of species of Heteromeyenia Potts, 1881, in South America (Porifera, Spongillidae)?. The genus Heteromeyenia Potts, was first found in South America in 1895 (H. insignis Weltner, from Santa Catarina, Brazil). After that, the same species was redescribed by Volkmer (1963) in Brazil?s materials and found by Bonetto and Ezcurra (1964), in Argentina?s materials. Volkmer (1975) mentions H. stepanowi (Dybowsky, 1884) for Brazil and probably for Argentina.

The present work confirms H. stepanowi for Argentina (in the middle Paraná river) and mentions H. baileyi (Bowerbank, 1863) for the first time for South America (Argentina and Brazil). The study of the materials of H. insignis made by Volkmer from Brazil, demonstrated the futility of retaining H. insignis as a distinct species, becoming obvious to relegate it as a synonym of H. daileyi, Heteromeyenia Potts remains then with two species in South America (for Brazil and Argentina): Heteromeyenia stepanowi (Dybowsky, 1884) and H. baileyi (Bowerbank, 1863).