A new species of Biemna (Porifera, Poecilosclerida) from the Sultanate of Oman

Recent (1998) collecting off the coasts of Oman in the course of the EC-MAS3 funded ‘Symbiosponge’ project yielded three species of the genus Biemna Gray, 1867 (Demospongiae, Poecilosclerida, Mycalina, Desmacellidae) not previously known from the area. One of these appeared to be new to science and is described as Biemna omanensis n.sp.. Its distinguishing features comprise the possession of oxea megascleres, which is of rare occurrence in Biemna, and a full complement of microscleres including microxeas, sigmas, commata, all of which are divisible in two non-overlapping size categories, and raphides. One of the other two species conformed to an earlier described species Biemna ciocalyptoides Burton, 1959, which was discovered to be a junior synonym of Biemna ehrenbergi (Keller, 1889) (new combination). The third species is the common and widespread Biemna tubutata Dendy, 1905.