Zootaxa 4748 (2): 261–295 ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition) https://www.mapress.com/j/zt/ Article ZOOTAXA Copyright © 2020 Magnolia Press ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition) https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4748.2.3 http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:661CD94A-130B-4BD8-B201-28B079815618 Calcareous sponges from the French Polynesia (Porifera: Calcarea) MICHELLE KLAUTAU1,5, MATHEUS VIEIRA LOPES1, BRUNA GUARABYRA1, ERIC FOLCHER2, MERRICK EKINS3 & CÉCILE DEBITUS4 1Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Biologia, Departamento de Zoologia, Av. Carlos Chagas Filho, 373, CEP 21941- 902, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil. 2IRD, centre de Nouméa, SEOH, BPA5, 98713 Nouméa cedex, New Caledonia 3Queensland museum, PO Box 3300, South Brisbane BC, Queensland 4101, Australia 4IRD-CNRS-UBO-IFREMER, UMR6539 LEMAR, IUEM, rue Dumont d’Urville, F29280 Plouzané, France 5Corresponding author. E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract Although the French Polynesian reefs are among the most well studied reefs of the world, sponges are still poorly known, with only 199 species or OTUs of sponges having been described from French Polynesia, 167 at an OTU level and 32 at a species level. From those 199 species, just five are calcareous sponges. As it is possible that this number is underestimated, the aim of the present work was to study the diversity of calcareous sponges from French Polynesia. Hence, different French Polynesian archipelagos were surveyed by SCUBA from 3 to 60 m of depth. Identifications were performed using morphological and molecular (ITS and C-LSU) tools. We found a total of nine species of Calcarea, comprising five different genera.