On 1 July 2025, NIWA merged with GNS Science to become Earth Sciences New Zealand.

Lefroyella ceramensis Ijima - glass sponge

Owen Anderson, Vulnerable Deep-Sea Communities
Lefroyella ceramensis Ijima, 1927 is a glass sponge known from northern New Zealand in the phylum Porifera. Glass sponges have a skeleton made of silicon structures called spicules, which in this species have formed a rigid funnel shaped basket. This animal was found in the Bay of Plenty at 1363 m.