Cliona pocillopora Bautista-Guerrero, Carballo, Cruz-Barraza & Nava, 2006

Pacheco, Cristian, Carballo, José Luis, Cortés, Jorge, Segovia, Johanna & Trejo, Alejandra, 2018, Excavating sponges from the Pacific of Central America, descriptions and a faunistic record, Zootaxa 4370 (5), pp. 451-491 : 467

Cliona pocillopora Bautista-Guerrero, Carballo, Cruz-Barraza & Nava, 2006

Material examined. MZUCR.375: Parque Nacional Isla del Coco , 14 m, 4.XI.2011, coll. Jeffrey Sibaja Cordero. Cpo. 23.E: Playa Esmeralda, Bahía Salinas , 5 m, 18.XII.2012, coll. and det. Cristian Pacheco Solano. ICMARES. UES.CI.69: Playa el Faro, Los Cóbanos , El Salvador, <3 m, 24.X.2016, coll. Alejandra Trejo, det. José Luis Carballo .

External morphology. Endolithic sponge in alpha morphology. Small circular papillae on average 600 µm in diameter. Live color not recorded.

Excavation. Multicamerate erosion. Chambers with average diameter of 860 µm ( Fig. 16A ). Erosion scars 15–66 µm in diameter, with occasional circular ridges and sharp edges ( Fig. 16B ).

Spicules. Megascleres as small tylostyles and derivates, mostly with subterminal tyles, occasionally far displaced or duplicated, forming tylostyles, tylostrongyles, subtylostyles, and sometimes centrotylote derivates ( Fig. 17 ). Tylostyle dimensions: 72–253 µm (x̅ =146.7, σ=48.0) x 2–16 µm (x̅ =6.8, σ=3.3).

Ecology. Found in Pavona sp. at 14 m depth.

Distribution and previous records. The species was described from the Mexican Pacific ( Bautista-Guerrero et al. 2006) and again reported from the same area ( Carballo et al. 2008a). The present specimen was collected at Isla del Coco, off Costa Rica and in El Salvador ( Fig. 18 ). Our findings represent a new record for Central America, in particular for El Salvador and Costa Rica.

Remarks. As this species was only recently described in good detail ( Bautista-Guerrero et al. 2006), we only provided a short taxonomic account. The tylostyles of C. pocillopora are comparatively short for a clionaid sponge and characteristic in shape, making this identification easy to perform.

Figures

FIGURE16. Cliona pocillopora bioerosion.A) Erosion chambers (arrow) and B) erosion scars.

FIGURE17. Spicules of Cliona pocillopora: morphological variations of tylostyles, with subterminal or displaced head.

FIGURE18. Distribution of Cliona pocillopora in the study area.