Nine new species of genus Ircinia (Demospongiae: Dictyoceratida: Irciniidae) from Korea

The genus Ircinia, in family Irciniidae, erected by Nardo, 1833 comprises of over 70 species known from worldwide (Schmidt, 1862; 1864; Duchassaing and Mi­ chelotti, 1864; Polejaeff, 1884; Lendenfeld, 1888; 1889; de Laubenfels, 1948; Wiedenmayer, 1977; Bergquist, 1980; Pulitzer­Finali, 1982; Cook and Bergquist, 1999; Van Soest et al., 2016). Twenty two species in this genus are in the Australian, 13 in the Mediterranean, 7 each on the American coast of the North Atlantic and in the In­ dian Ocean, 7 in the New Zealand. Cook and Bergquist (2002) defined diagnosis of the skeleton of the Ircinia species that the primary fibres are cored with foreign debris, and form massive fascicles. Secondary fibres are simple and uncored. The consistency of these spong­ es is soft to firm, though they are extremely tough, and are difficult to cut or tear. Fourteen Irciniid sponges (Psammocinia, Sarcotragus, and Bergquistia) except genus Ircinia have previously been described from Ko­ rean waters (Sim, 1998; Sim and Lee, 1998; 2000; 2001; 2002a; 2002b; Lee and Sim, 2004). Several authors re­ viewed this genus (Polejaeff, 1884; Lendenfeld, 1889; de Laubenfels, 1948; Bergquist, 1980; Cook and Bergq­ uist, 1999). In the present study, we discovered nine new species of genus Ircinia from Korean waters. These new species are described and provided illustrations.