Clathrina aurea Solé-Cava, Klautau, Boury-Esnault, Borojevic & Thorpe, 1991

Lanna, Emilio, Cavalcanti, Fernanda F., Cardoso, Lilian, Muricy, Guilherme & Klautau, Michelle, 2009, Taxonomy of calcareous sponges (Porifera, Calcarea) from Potiguar Basin, NE Brazil, Zootaxa 1973, pp. 1-27 : 4-5

Clathrina aurea Solé-Cava, Klautau, Boury-Esnault, Borojevic & Thorpe, 1991

Synonyms. Clathrina aurea, Solé-Cava et al. 1991: 382 ; Muricy & Moraes 1998: 215; Klautau & Borojevic 2001: 401; Klautau & Valentine 2003: 9; Monteiro & Muricy 2004: 683; Vilanova et al. 2004: 651; Lanna et al. 2007: 1554.

Type material. MNHN-LBIM.C.1989.1 (holotype /ethanol).

Type locality. Arraial do Cabo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (23º00’S – 42º00’W).

Material examined. UFPEPOR 603, Urca do Minhoto, Guamaré, Rio Grande do Norte state (04º53’00”S – 36º12’43”W), depth: 10 m, coll. G. Muricy, 05/III/2007. UFPEPOR 604, 608, Urca do Tubarão, Guamaré, Rio Grande do Norte state (04º50’52.7”S – 36º27’02.1”W), depth: 8 m, coll. L. Monteiro, 03/III/ 2007.

Description. Sponge bright yellow in life and white to beige in ethanol. The largest specimen collected measures 2.9 x 1.3 x 0.5 cm. The cormus is clathrate, smooth, formed of irregular and loosely anastomosed tubes (Fig. 2A, B). The aquiferous system is asconoid and water-collecting tubes are absent. The skeleton is composed only of triactines without organization (Fig. 2C).

Spicules (Table 1). Triactines: equiangular and equiradiate. Actines are cylindrical and undulated near the tip, which is rounded [48.0–72.1 (±1.4)–91.0 / 4.4 (±0.4) µm (n = 3 specimens)] (Fig. 2D).

Known distribution. Endemic from Brazil: Pernambuco state (Fernando de Noronha Archipelago; Muricy & Moraes 1998), Rio de Janeiro state (Arraial do Cabo, Rio de Janeiro and Angra dos Reis; Solé-Cava et al. 1991, Vilanova et al. 2004, Monteiro & Muricy 2004), and São Paulo state (São Sebastião; Lanna et al. 2007). First record for Rio Grande do Norte state.

Ecology. Sponge scyaphilous, living in crevices and overhangs. Some specimens were found associated to hydrozoans and zoanthids (Fig. 2A).

Remarks. So far, C. aurea is the only known species of Clathrina present in the Brazilian coast which is yellow in vivo. It is one of the most widely distributed calcareous sponges in Brazil, occurring from Rio Grande do Norte state to São Paulo state (approximately 3,000 km apart).

Another species of Clathrina recorded from Rio Grande do Norte state was Clathrina atlantica (by Borojevic & Peixinho 1976). However, according to Klautau & Valentine (2003) the distribution of C. atlantica is restricted to the Cape Verde Islands; the identification of the specimens described by Borojevic & Peixinho (1976) is doubtful and they should be re-analysed. Anyway, C. atlantica is very different from C. aurea in that it has, besides the triactines, also diactines and two size categories of tetractines.

FIGURE 2. Clathrina aurea (UFPEPOR 604). A— in situ photograph of a live specimen; B—close-up of the anastomosis of a preserved specimen; C—skeleton; D—triactine.