Suberites aurantiacus ( Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864 )

Ugalde, Diana, Fernandez, Julio C. C., Gómez, Patricia, Lôbo-Hajdu, Gisele & Simões, Nuno, 2021, An update on the diversity of marine sponges in the southern Gulf of Mexico coral reefs, Zootaxa 5031 (1), pp. 1-112 : 67-69

Suberites aurantiacus ( Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864)

Tables 6, 7; Figs. 62A–B

Synonymy and references: Terpios aurantiaca Duchassaing & Michelotti (1864: 99) , and Muricy et al. (2011: 72); Laxosuberites zeteki de Laubenfels (1864: 99) ; Terpios zeteki Hechtel (1965: 59) , and Rützler & Smith (1993: 390); Laxosuberites aurantiaca , Protosuberites aurantiaca , Protosuberites aurantiacus , Suberites aurantiaca : see references compiled in Muricy et al. (2011: 72); Suberites aurantiacus: Hajdu et al. (2011: 102) , Muricy et al. (2011: 72), Pérez et al. (2017: 12), and van Soest (2017: 192).

Type locality. Saint Thomas .

Material examined. CNPGG –1985 Chelem Lagoon (21.2631°N, 89.7063), coll. Diana Ugalde, 1 m depth 28 July 2017 .

Description. Massive habit, overall sponge size 12 × 7 × 4 cm. The surface is smooth in parts and rugose in others. Oscules scattered on the surface, no visible when is preserved. Color green in vivo, beige when is preserved. The consistency is firm, slightly compressible.

Skeleton. Choanosomal skeleton consists of confused spicules densely packed; the ectosomal skeleton is a palisade-like continuum of bouquets of smaller tylostyles. The tylostyles slightly protruded outside the surface. Visible channels close to the surface ( Figs. 62 A ).

Spicules. Megascleres: Two categories of tylostyles: Tylostyles I ( Fig. 62B 1 ), straight and fusiform 180– 268 (71)–375/3– 4.6 (1.1)–7 µm, with globose tyle 5– 7.5 (1.1)–8 µm thick, some tyles with mucron; tylostyles II ( Fig.62B 2 ), similar in shape to the previous category, 435– 617 (85.9)–719/6– 9 (2.7)–12 µm, tyle 6– 11 (3.1)–14 µm thick.

Distribution. Mexico ( Castellanos-Peréz et al. 2020; current records), Bermuda (de Laubenfels, 1950) , other countries in the Caribbean Sea ( Muricy et al. 2011), Brazil ( Fortunato et al. 2020).

Remarks. Suberites aurantiacus is a polymorphic species found with encrusting to massive, or subspherical shape, and orange or green color in vivo ( Fortunato et al. 2020). These variations in color, bluish and red tones are reported by Hechtel (1965), and are also present in the studied specimens (Ugalde personal observation). Also, the head of tylostyles may be wrinkled or deformed, or be very well formed tyles (not wrinkled), which might be a consequence of mangrove habitats in the first case, and rocky coastal habitats, in the second ( Hechtel 1965 as Terpios zeteki, Rützler & Smith 1993 ). However, this feature should not be treated as a pattern since the studied material lives in the estuarine habitat of a coastal lagoon, and it has smooth tyles. Tylostyle dimensions also vary widely: I, 140–386.4 x 2.4–12.2 (shaft) x 3.1–12.2 µm (tyle), and II, 376.2–830 x 4.9–20.7 (shaft) x 5.2–18.3 µm (tyle), in Brazilian specimens reported by Fortunato et al. (2020; Table 2); and 140–877 x 3–18 µm (overall micrometries) reported from Jamaica specimens by Hechtel (1965, as Terpios zeteki ).

Suberites aurantiacus is originally recorded from Saint Thomas, Caribbean Sea, however, Rützler & Smith (1993) and Carballo et al. (2004) have examined diverse material of S. aurantiacus confirming its presence in the Pacific coast of both Panama and Mexico, respectively. Recently, Castellanos-Perez et al. (2020) have recorded this species in the Terminos Lagoon in mangrove roots, this being the first record of the species for the SGoM.

Order Tethyida Morrow & Cárdenas, 2015

Figures

FIGURE 1. Map of sampling localities explored in this study in the southern Gulf of Mexico. The localities include 16 coral reefs from Veracruz to Campeche Bank and one station in the Chelem lagoon in Yucatan Peninsula.

FIGURE 2. Agelas clathrodes (Schmidt, 1870) (CNPGG-2297), skeleton and spicules:A. transversal section of the skeleton; B. detail of the ectosomal region, upper side; C. verticillated acanthostyles. Scale bars: A = 500 µm; B = 100 µm; C = 50 µm.

FIGURE 62. Suberites aurantiacus (Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864) (CNPGG-2406), skeleton and spicules: A. transversal section of the skeleton; B. 1—tylostyles I; 2— tylostyles II;. Scale bars: A = 500 µm; B = 200 µm.