Clathrina conifera, Klautau & Borojevic, 2001

Klautau, Michelle & Borojevic, Radovan, 2001, Sponges of the genus Clathrina Gray, 1867 from Arraial do Cabo, Brazil, Zoosystema 23 (3), pp. 395-410 : 404-407

Clathrina conifera n. sp.

( Fig. 6 ; Table 6)

Clathrina primordialis (Haeckel, 1872) in Klautau et al., 1994: 372, tabs 1; 2, fig. 1.

TYPE MATERIAL. — Holotype, 15.XI.1987, coll. G. Muricy, The Natural History Museum, London ( BMNH 1999.9.16.19).

TYPE LOCALITY. — Arraial do Cabo (Anjos), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

ETYMOLOGY. — From Latin conifer: cone-bearing. For the shape of the actines.

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — Oasis Coralino. Forno, Anjos, Enseada and the Upwelling Area. Saco da Saia,

TABLE 7. — Clathrina cylindractina Klautau et al., 1994 , spicule size.

Focinho do Cabo, several specimens collected under rocks and under the soft coral Palythoa sp.

DESCRIPTION

The cormus of this species is white in life and in alcohol. It is composed of large, irregular and loosely anastomosed tubes. Oscula are distributed throughout the cormus and no water-collecting tubes are present. The massive, delicate cormus becomes a mass of loose tubes spread on rocks when the sponge is young. No special characters were found on the histological slides.

One kind of spicule composes the skeleton, which has no special organisation: the triactine ( Fig. 6 ; Table 6). Triactines are equiangular and equiradiate, and their actines are straight and conical, with blunt ends.

C. conifera n. sp. is very abundant in the Oasis Coralino, particularly in summer. Its habitat is sciaphilous. Specimens are frequently found under rocks or other animals, such as other sponges, tunicates ( Ascidia ) and soft corals ( Palythoa sp. ).

REMARKS

The species we now name C. conifera n. sp., we described in a previous article ( Klautau et al. 1994) as C. primordialis (Haeckel, 1872) . In Haeckel’s description of C. primordialis , he did not give the type locality of this species, but indicated several origins, including Rio de Janeiro ( Brazil). As the holotype of this species was considered to have disappeared, and the specimen from Arraial do Cabo had a morphology that matched with the description given by Haeckel as C. primordialis , we suggested Rio de Janeiro should become the type locality of this species.

However, two types of C. primordialis were finally found last year, one in the Phyllestische Museum, in Jena ( Germany) (I.N.P. 154), and the other in the Zoological Museum of Berlin (Z.M.B. 1306). The specimen from Jena was collected in Lesina,

TABLE 8. — Clathrina quadriradiata n. sp., spicule size.

the Adriatic Sea, while the specimen from Berlin was collected in Naples. Studying both specimens and comparing them to the original description of primordialis , we elected the specimen from Naples as the neotype of C. primordialis (further details will be published in a revision of the Genus Clathrina , which is being prepared by Klautau and Valentine). Consequently, Rio de Janeiro is not the type locality of this species. Comparing the neotype of C. primordialis to the specimens from Arraial do Cabo, we found some important morphological differences in the shape and size of the spicules. C. primordialis has two populations of triactines: triactines with conical actines (132 [± 22] / 15 [± 2 µm]) and triactines with cylindrical actines (131 [± 17] / 12 [± 1 µm]), while C. conifera n. sp. has only spicules with shorter conical actines.

C. conifera n. sp. is also morphologically similar to another species from Arraial do Cabo: C. cylindractina . These species live in sympatry and have similar morphology (morphologies). However, the actines of the triactines of C. cylindractina are more cylindrical and not conical as in C. conifera n. sp. Analysing both populations by allozyme electrophoresis, we found no gene flow between them ( Klautau et al. 1994).

TABLE 9. — Clathrina tetractina n. sp., spicule size.

Figures

FIG. 6. — Clathrina conifera n. sp., holotype (BMNH 1999.9.16.19), spicules. Scale bar: 100 µm.