Cliona flavifodina Rützler, 1974

Ugalde, Diana, Gómez, Patricia & Simões, Nuno, 2015, Marine sponges (Porifera: Demospongiae) from the Gulf of México, new records and redescription of Erylus trisphaerus (de Laubenfels, 1953), Zootaxa 3911 (2), pp. 151-183 : 158

Cliona flavifodina Rützler, 1974

( Figs. 6 A–C, 13C)

Synonymy: Cliona flavifodina Rützler, 1974:373 .

Material examined. CNPGG –1363 Sisal Banks reefs (21°26'28.2”N, 90°17'34”W), depth 7 m, 10/VI/2011.

Description. This burrowing sponge occurs in alpha-stage growth form more commonly than in beta stage ( Fig. 13 C). The papillae are microhispid, quite small, and circular, 300–700 µm in diameter. The microhispid papillae surface is due to the arrangement of tylostyles in bundles perpendicular to the surface. Its color alive is orange, and a faded-yellow in alcohol.

Excavation. The papilla has a spicular arrangement with a dense palisade of tylostyles pointing upwards, towards the ectosome surface, resulting in a microhispid appearance. A confuse mass of spicules in all directions is present more interiorly, towards the choanosome. ( Fig. 6 A). The choanosome is thin and frail, does not show a definite pattern on the carbonate structure of the burrowed coral, neither was possible to observe the galleries since the only fragment studied was a small coral rubble.

Spicules. Megascleres are straight tylostyles 190–420 × 7–13 µm, with a spherical or oval tyle ( Fig. 6 B): 7.8–13 × 10–15 µm in diameter. Microscleres are spirasters in two categories: undulate or abruptly curved 1–4 curves, with prominent spines 7.8–50.7 × 1.5–2.6 µm (spines included) ( Fig. 6 C). The prominent spines, is the characteristic of the species, a few can be amphiasters with intermediate forms and sizes.

Distribution and ecology. Cliona flavifodina has been recorded in Bermuda over dead coral, pelecipod shells and rocks, and found at depths from 0.5 to10 m ( Rützler, 1974); Jamaica [as Cliona viridis Hechtel (1965) , as Cliona caribbaea Pang (1973) fide Zea & Weil (2003)]. In this case the species was found on dead coral at 7 m depth. This is the first record for the species in the Gulf of Mexico.

Remarks. The morphological characteristics of the original species description agree exactly with those of the present material except that a spherical rather than oval tyle is mostly present in our material and no specimens were observed with granular cells, which are common in the species. Carballo et al. (2004) recorded C. flavifodina in east Tropical Mexican Pacific. The specimens described by Carballo et al. (2004) have some inconsistencies in the spirasters shape when are compared with the original description of the species, such as bifurcated rays, when the original spirasters description just reports single rays, and the arrangement of tylostyles in loose tracts are features that do not belong to C. flavifodina , neither to the present material studied.

Figures

FIGURE 6. Cliona flavifodina Rützler, 1974: A. Cross section of skeletal arrangement. B. Common tylostyle with spherical head and detail of tip. C. Variation geometry of spirasters.

FIGURE 13. Sponges in situ A. Erylus formosus. B. Cliona amplicavata excavating on Lobatus gigas shell. C. Cliona flavifodina. D. Chondrilla caribensis, E. Hymeniacidon caerulea.