Clathrina lutea Azevedo et al., 2017

Lopes, Matheus V., Padua, André, Cóndor-Luján, Báslavi & Klautau, Michelle, 2018, Calcareous sponges (Porifera, Calcarea) from Florida: new species, new records and biogeographical affinities, Zootaxa 4526 (2), pp. 127-150 : 131-132

Clathrina lutea Azevedo et al., 2017

( Fig 2 ; Table 2)

Synonyms. Clathrina primordialis— Lehnert & Van Soest 1998: 99, Fig. 23. Leucetta sp. — Moraes et al. 2003: 17. Clathrina sp. nov. 2 — Moraes et al. 2006: 166. Clathrina sp. 1 — Rossi et al. 2011: 1028. Clathrina sp. nov. 8 — Klautau et al. 2013: 449. Clathrina lutea— Azevedo et al. 2017: 318, Cóndor-Luján et al. 2018: 21.

Diagnosis. Clathrina with yellow cormus formed by tight and regularly anastomosed tubes, and with water collecting tubes with large oscula. Triactines have slightly conical actines with blunt tips ( Azevedo et al. 2017).

Material examined. UFRJPOR 8358, UFRJPOR 8372, Looe Key, Florida, United States of America (24°32’51 N, 81°24’24 W), 10–15 m of depth, coll. A. Padua & M. C. Díaz, 12 August 2015.

Material used for comparison. UFRJPOR 5173 (Holotype), Pedra Lixa reef, Abrolhos Archipelago, 7 m of depth, coll. C. Zilberberg & L. Monteiro, 21 March 2005. UFRJPOR 5172, UFRJPOR 5174 (Paratypes), same information as the holotype. MNRJ 2930 , Barreta Falsa, Rocas Atoll, 3 m of depth, coll. F. Moraes, 22 November 1999 .

Colour. Bright yellow when alive and light beige after fixation ( Fig 2A ).

Morphology. The cormus is massive and firm. It is composed of thin, regular and tightly anastomosed tubes, forming a reticulated surface, with multiple conspicuous oscula where water-collecting tubes arrive. The largest specimen (UFRJPOR 8358) was 2.5 x 2.3 x 0.5 cm and the smallest (UFRJPOR 8372) 1.0 x 1.6 x 0.9 cm. The aquiferous system is asconoid. No granular cells were observed. The skeleton is composed of only one category of regular triactines without organisation ( Fig 2B ).

Spicules ( Fig 2 , Table 2).

Triactines ( Fig 2C ): Regular (equiangular and equiradiate). Actines are slightly conical with blunt tips. Size:

83.1 to 104.5/ 7.1 to 9.1 µm ( Table 2).

Ecology. Specimens described in the present work were found between 10 and 15 m of depth. They were both collected in a burrow, one specimen was on the ceiling. No associated organisms were observed among the analysed specimens.

Distribution. Clathrina lutea has a wide distribution in the Western Atlantic Ocean, ranging from Florida down to the Northeastern Brazilian coast. It was previously reported to Florida ( Klautau et al. 2013), Virgin Islands ( Klautau et al. 2013), Curaçao ( Cóndor-Luján et al. 2018), Rocas Atoll, and Abrolhos Bank (archipelago and shallow reefs, Azevedo et al. 2017).

Remarks. The colour, external morphology, and shape of the triactines observed in the specimens analysed in the present work match the original description of C. lutea ( Azevedo et al. 2017) . However, the specimens from Florida had larger spicules than those from Brazil and Curaçao ( Table 2) ( Azevedo et al. 2017; Cóndor-Luján et al. 2018). In the phylogenetic tree, the two specimens of C. lutea from Florida and other regions form a clade with a bootstrap support of 82% and presented a p-distance that ranged from 0.0 to 0.11% among them, corroborating our morphological analysis (see the Molecular results section).

Figures

FIGURE 2. Clathrina lutea (UFRJPOR 8372). A. Specimen in ethanol. B. Tangential section. C. Triactines.