Morphological, chemical and biochemical characterization of a new species of sponge without skeleton (Porifera, Demospongiae) from the Mediterranean Sea

Une nouvelle espece d'eponge sans squelette, Thymosiopsis conglomerans, est decrite de la Mediterranee. Elle differe de l'autre espece du genre, T. cuticulatus Vacelet & Perez, qui vit en etroite sympatrie bien que dans des conditions ecologiques differentes, par sa morphologie et sa composition en sterols. La nouvelle espece est de forme massive et incorpore de grandes quantites de corps etrangers. Des sterols Δ 7 sont presents dans les deux especes de Thymosiopsis, mais different nettement par leur chaine laterale. Les sequences d'ARNr 28S confirment clairement les affinites de Thymosiopsis avec Thymosia, un genre de l'Atlantique Nord-Est qui differe par la possession d'un squelette tres original de fibres de spongine noduleuses. Les sequences d'ARNr confirment aussi l'attribution de ces deux genres a la famille Chondrillidae. La cytologie de la nouvelle espece est comparee en microscopie electronique a transmission a celle de T. cuticulatus et de Thymosia guernei du Portugal.

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