Terpios hoshinota Rützler & Muzik, 1993

Putra, Singgih Afifa, Ambo-Rappe, Rohani, Jompa, Jamaluddin & de Voogd, Nicole J., 2024, Preliminary study of marine sponges (Porifera) in the littoral of Spermonde Archipelago, Indonesia, ZooKeys 1208, pp. 275-313 : 275-313

Terpios hoshinota Rützler & Muzik, 1993

Fig. 20

Diagnostic features.

Thin (<1 mm thick), encrusting, and excavating form overgrowing host coral skeletons ( Acropora spp. ). Dark grey to black, sometime pale grey in the upper surface. Original description of Terpios hoshinota show spicules as only tylostyles ( Rützler and Muzik 1993). In this study, spicule arrangements are tylostyles (total length × width) 132.9–252 (206.9) × 2.6–7.8 (4.4) µm (n = 52), and variation of heads (head length × head width × neck width) 3.7–7.4 (5.4) × 4.8–9 (6.5) × 1.8–5 (3.3) µm (n = 27). Spicule dimension measurements are shown on Table 3 . The morphology of Terpios hoshinota is similar to Terpios granulosus Bergquist, 1967 from Hawaiian reefs. The difference is that this species is greyish brown, has lobe-headed tylostyles, and has a cyanobacterial symbiont ( Rützler and Muzik 1993). This species known as a coral-killing sponge, but a recent study shows Terpios hoshinota could also grow on glass slides, plastic sheets, and rubber tyres. The competitive interaction with the coral host is only for substrate rather than food or nutrients ( Syue et al. 2021).

Distribution and ecology.

This widespread species has been recorded from the Indian Ocean, north-western Pacific, and Australia ( Fromont et al. 2019). Terpios hoshinota was originally described from the Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan (north-west Pacific). Our specimen was found from north-west of Samalona Island, the Spermonde Archipelago; reef flat, overgrowing branching Acropora sp.

Figures

Figure 20. Habitus in situ of Terpios hoshinota Rützler & Muzik, 1993 (photograph by SAP).