Clathrina cf. cylindractina Klautau, Solé-Cava & Borojevic, 1994

Fontana, Tayara, Cóndor-Luján, Báslavi, Azevedo, Fernanda, Pérez, Thierry & Klautau, Michelle, 2018, Diversity and distribution patterns of Calcareous sponges (subclass Calcinea) from Martinique, Zootaxa 4410 (2), pp. 331-369 : 345-346

Clathrina cf. cylindractina Klautau, Solé-Cava & Borojevic, 1994

( Figure 6 , Table 6)

Synonyms. Clathrina cylindractina: Klautau et al. 1994: 372 , Muricy & Silva 1999: 160, Klautau & Borojevic 2001: 407, Klautau & Valentine 2003: 24, Klautau et al. 2013: 452.

Material Examined. (Seven specimens) UFRJPOR 7855, Le Rocher du Diamant, Martinique (1426.556' N– 612.408' W), collected by B. Cóndor-Luján, 15 May 2015, 12 m depth. UFRJPOR 7867, UFRJPOR 7872, UFRJPOR 7873, UFRJPOR 7875, UFRJPOR 7881, UFRJPOR 7882, Le Rocher du Diamant, Martinique (1426.556' N–612.408' W), collected by B. Cóndor-Luján, 16 May 2015, 14 m depth.

Material for comparison. Holotype (BMNH 1999.9.16.21).

Colour. White alive and light beige in ethanol.

Description. Sponge composed of thin and delicate tubes that intertwine forming a cormus with tight or loose and irregular anastomosis, depending on the part of the cormus ( Figure 6A ). No water-collecting tubes. Oscula are simple openings on the top of the tubes. No cells with granules were found. Aquiferous system asconoid.

Skeleton. The skeleton is disorganised ( Figure 6B ). It is composed of one category of triactine. Thichoxeas are also present.

Spicules ( Table 6).

Triactines: Regular to subregular (one or more actines can have different lenghts). Actines are cylindrical to slightly conical with blunt tips ( Figure 6C–G ). They are predominantly straight, but some are slightly undulated. Size is variable: 40.0–100.0/6.6 µm.

Trichoxeas: They are very thin, long and straight. All where broken:>110.0–287.5/1.6 µm.

Ecology. Specimens of this species were found in semi-dark caves. One of them was attached to a zoanthid.

Remarks. The specimen from Martinique is morphologically similar to C. cylindractina from Brazil. However, in C. cylindractina the tubes are more loosely anastomosed than in the specimen from Martinique and spicules are slightly thicker. As we did not get DNA sequences of the specimens from Martinique to confirm if this variability is polymorphism or not, we decided for the moment to call them C. cf. cylindractina .

*From the original description ( Klautau et al. 1994a). **From Klautau & Valentine (2003).

In 2003, Klautau & Valentine mentioned that they found few tetractines in the holotype of C. cylindractina . We re-analysed a slide from the holotype and we did not find any tetractine in it nor in the specimens from Martinique. It is possible that those tetractines were just a contamination.

Geographical distribution. Arraial do Cabo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (e.g. Klautau et al. 1994), and Martinique.

Figures

FIGURE 6. Clathrina cf. cylindractina (UFRJPOR 7855).A. Specimen in ethanol.B. Tangential section. C. Triactines.