Lissodendoryx species of the Indo-Malayan Archipelago (Demospongiae: Poecilosclerida)

A brief history of the genus Lissodendoryx Topsent, 1892 is given and the Indo-Malayan representatives are described based on material collected by the Siboga Expedition (1899-1900) and the Indonesian-Dutch Snellius II Expedition (1984-1985), on reexamination of previously described specimens from the area, and on the literature. Previously, ten species assigned to Lissodendoryx were reported from this area. Two of these, L. baculata Topsent, 1897 and L. tawiensis Wilson, 1925, do not conform to the presently employed definition of the genus Lissodendoryx. One, L. sinensis Brøndsted, 1934, is considered a junior synonym of L. ternatensis (Thiele, 1903). L. grata (Thiele, 1903) is a valid species of Lissodendoryx, with L. oxytes De Laubenfels, 1954 of the adjacent Palau Islands as a junior synonym. Indo-Malayan records of L. isodictyalis (Carter, 1882) appear to belong to one of the other described species and it is now no longer considered a member of the Indo-Malayan fauna. L. paucispinata (Ridley & Dendy, 1886) is a further Indo-Malayan species of the genus. The species variously known as Halichondria aspera Bowerbank, 1875, and Crella, Damiria or Damiriana schmidti sensu Ridley, 1884 is here assigned to Lissodendoryx, its name being established as L. aspera. Unpublished material of the Siboga and Snellius II expeditions contained six species of the genus, viz. L. aspera, L. similis Thiele, 1903, L. grata, L. ternatensis, L. timorensis n.sp., and L. microchelifera n.sp. This brings the total number of Indo-Malayan Lissodendoryx species to seven. A key to the species of the Indo- Malayan area is provided. Several of the species appear to be endemic to the Indo-Malayan area, others have a more widespread occurrence over the Indo-West Pacific region.