''Ascaltis gardineri'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

calcareous sponge The calcareous sponges of class Calcarea are members of the animal phylum Porifera, the cellular sponges. They are characterized by spicules made of calcium carbonate in the form of calcite or aragonite. While the spicules in most species hav ...

in the family ''

Leucascidae Leucascidae is a family of calcareous sponges in the order Clathrinida The Clathrinida are an order of calcareous sponges found in marine environments. These sponges have an asconoid structure and lack a true dermal membrane or cortex. The s ...

'' from India and the

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, V ...

. The species is named after the British zoologist

John Stanley Gardiner John Stanley Gardiner (1872–1946) was a British zoologist. Biography Stanley, as he was known, was the younger son of John Jephson Gardiner and Sarah McTier. He was born in Jordanstown (Belfast) in 1872 – two years after his brother Arthur. ...

Description

Formed of regularly and tightly anastomosed, very thin, delicate tubes. In shape it is lobose, and full of folds. Each fold is flat, thin and delicate. Oscula have not been observed. In the centre of each fold there is a large tube (pseudoatrium), with choanocytes, surrounded by thinner tubes. Covering the external tubes, there are some large triactines. The wall of the tubes is very thin. The tubes are perpendicular to the surface, and converge at a large central tube. Above the central tube, it is possible to see some lacunes. The skeleton is formed of two types of triactines, of different sizes, and tetractines of the same size as the shorter triactines. The spicules are equiradiate and equiangular. Actines are conical with sharp tips. The large triactines are present only in the outside of the external tubes, where they lie side by side. The other triactines are spread along the tubes. Tetractines are less abundant than triactines. Their apical actine is almost the same thickness as the other actines. It is conical, sharp, shorter, straight and smooth and projected inside the tubes.

References

World Register of Marine Species entry
Clathrina Sponges described in 1913 Fauna of India Fauna of Seychelles {{calcarea-stub