Australian freshwater sponges with a new species of Pectispongilla (Porifera: Demospongiae: Spongillida)

This paper focus on the biodiversity assessment of Australian inland water. Checklists of Australian Spongillida are also
provided with biogeographic notes together with the geographic range of all species of freshwater sponges in Australia.
New discoveries on freshwater sponges are reported from ephemeral freshwater habitats in Kakadu National Park (Australia
Northern Territory). Morphological analyses show that the sponges belong to Radiospongilla and Pectispongilla in
the family Spongillidae. Radiospongilla cfr. philippinensis shows a single layer of radial gemmuloscleres and the absence
of tangential gemmuloscleres in the gemmular theca. Pectispongilla gagudjuensis n. sp. diverges from the diagnostic traits
of the four species currently assigned to the genus i.e. skeletal megascleres are dominant acanthostrongyles and less frequent
acanthoxeas shorter than in the other species, microscleres are absent, and gemmules are larger than in the other
species of the genus.