Terpios cf. granulosus Bergquist, 1967

Cóndor-Luján, Báslavi, Arteaga, Alvaro, Polo, Christian, Arroyo, Yessenia, Willenz, Philippe & Hajdu, Eduardo, 2023, Shallow Suberitida (Porifera, Demospongiae) from Peru, Zootaxa 5264 (4), pp. 451-489 : 481-483

Terpios cf. granulosus Bergquist, 1967

( Figure 11 , Table 10)

Type locality. O’ahu, Kaneohe Bay , Hawaii (21°26′0″ N, (157°48′0″W).

Material examined. Seven specimens. MNRJ 11361 , MNRJ 11366 and MNRJ 11390 , Bajo El Chile, Lobos de Afuera Islands, Lambayeque (06°55′18.00″S 80°43′13.60″W), 8.5 m, 10.8 m and 10.9 m depth, coll. K.L. Aguirre, E. Hajdu, Y. Hooker & Ph. Willenz, 05.X.2007, 06.X.2007 , and 06.X.2007. MNRJ 11399 , San Cristobal, Lobos de Afuera Islands , Lambayeque (06°54′52.50′′S 80°42′55.90′′W), 11.6 m depth, coll. K.L. Aguirre, E. Hajdu, Y. Hooker & Ph. Willenz, 07.X.2007 . MNRJ 11412 , El Moño, Lobos de Afuera Islands, Lambayeque (06°55′11.20″S 80°42′47.10″W), 6.1 m depth, coll. K.L.Aguirre, E. Hajdu, Y. Hooker & Ph. Willenz, 08.X.2007 . MNRJ 11495 , Don Martin Island , Huacho, Lima (11°01′11.14″S 77°40′08.78″W), 1.6 m depth, coll. B. Cóndor-Luján, Y. Hooker & Ph. Willenz, 23.X.2007 . MNRJ 13062 , Roca La Chavelera , Cancas, Tumbes (03°55′14.10′′S 80°54′29.90′′W), 11.4 m depth, coll. B. Cóndor-Luján, Y. Hooker & Ph. Willenz, 30.XI.2009 .

Description. Thinly encrusting, usually less than 0.1 cm thick, and only up to 10 cm in maximum diameter. Small oscula (≤ 2 mm) scattered on the surface, some on the top or sides of short elevations. Fragile.

Colour. Deep-blue (cobalt hue if subject to strong light), with green shades, in life ( Fig. 11A, B ) and blue in ethanol.

Skeleton. Not much distinction between ectosomal and choanosomal skeletons, as tylostyles tufts erect on the substrate, mostly fan out and pierce the surface up to 300 µm. Occasionally, one-spicule-long tracts (ca. 50 µm across) bridge the distance between substrate and the (sub)ectosomal tufts. Some tylostyles were also found parallel to the substrate. Abundant subsurface canals or lacunae (diam = 100–300 μm, Fig. 11C ).

Spicules. Megascleres. Tylostyles, straight or slightly curved, smooth, sharp apex, with lobate, often irregular head (100–422 x 3–11 μm, Fig. 11 D–J , Table 10).

Ecology. This species was found as epibiont on gastropods or growing directly over granitic rock. Brachiopods, zoanthids, and other sponges were observed as associated fauna.

Geographical and bathymetrical distributions. Terpios granulosus has been reported from Hawaii ( Bergquist 1967), Gulf of Thailand ( Putchakarn 2007), Kenya ( Barnes & Bell 2002), Mozambique ( Calcinai et al. 2020) and Madagascar ( Vacelet & Vasseur 1971) and down to 25 m depth ( Calcinai et al. 2020). Terpios cf. granulosus occurs in the SE Pacific, along the coast of Peru: Cancas (03°), Lobos de Afuera (06°) and Don Martin Islands (11°). MEOW in Peru: Guayaquil and Central Peru ecoregions ( Spalding et al. 2007). From intertidal to 12 m depth (this study).

Remarks. Thirteen species are currently recognised as valid in Terpios , four of which originally reported from the Pacific, but none from its eastern rim ( de Voogd et al. 2022). Blueish/greenish species occur in the Pacific, T. granulosus and T. quiza ( de Laubenfels, 1954) , as well as in the Atlantic, T. fugax Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864 and T. manglaris Ŗtzler & Smith, 1993 . Overall, tylostyles of the Atlantic species seem to attain larger sizes, with spicules reaching over 400 µm, while both Pacific species reach at most 350 µm ( Table 10). Peruvian specimens can also present tylostyles longer than 400 µm, which suggests a revision of these species is needed. For now, the Pacific species coming closest to the analysed specimens is T. granulosus , but the tylostyles of the Peruvian specimens seem to have stouter dimensions (192–352 x 1.8–6 vs 100–422 x 3–10 μm). Therefore, the name T. cf. granulosus was chosen by us, based on the unlikelihood of natural amphi-American distributions of sponges.

Figures

FIGURE 11. Terpios cf. granulosus Bergquist, 1967. A–B, live specimens (MNRJ 11399 and MNRJ 11495 respectively); C, skeleton architecture in transversal ground section; D–F, tylostyles; G–J, details of D. Scale bars:A, 2 cm; B, 1 cm; C, 500 μm; D–F, 50 μm; G–J, 2 μm.