Rossellidae (Porifera: Hexactinellida) from the Bering Sea and off Bering Island

Abstract

Members of the family Rossellidae are the main contributors to the hexacti-nellid fauna and even to the macrobenthic fauna in the deep waters of the North Pacific. Representatives of this family often reach a larger size than other Hexactinellida, Porifera and even other representatives of benthic invertebrates. Description of Rossellidae from the Bering Sea collected by trawls, submersibles and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) during the expeditions of RVs ‘Akademik M.A. Lavrentyev’ and ‘Akademik Mstislav Keldysh’ are given. Subgenera, species and subspe-cies in five genera are described and include: Acanthascus (Acanthascus) alani profundus; A. (Acanthascus) alani microdiscoctasterus ssp.n.; Acanthascus (Rhabdocalyptus) bore-alis; Acanthascus (Rhabdocalyptus) heteraster; Acanthascus (Rhabdocalyptus) mirabilis; Acanthascus (Staurocalyptus) tylotus; Aulosaccus ijimai; Bathydorus laniger; B. spino-sus; B. spinosissimus; B. sp.; Caulophacus (Caulophacus) elegans; C. (Caulophacus) hyperboreus; C. (Caulophacus) miri sp.n.; C. (Caulophacus) subarcticus sp.n.; C. (Cau-lophacus) sp.; Hyalascus giganteus; H. keldishi sp.n. We suggest a new name B. levis neospinosus ssp.n. for B. levis spinosus of Wilson to avoid the homonymy with B. spinosus Schulze and simultaneously we offer it as a lower synonym of the latter. Meantime B. levis and B. spinosus are considered to be different species. The subdivision of Rossellidae into Rossellinae and Lanuginellinae has no reasonable morphological grounds in their diagnoses anymore and support for uniting these two subfamilies is provided. How to cite this article: Tabachnick K.R., Menshenina L.L., Ehrlich H. 2023. Rossellidae (Porifera: Hexactinellida) from the Bering Sea and off the Bering Island.