Callyspongia (Callyspongia) aff. californica Dickinson, 1945

Jaramillo, Karla B., Condor-Lujan, Baslavi, Longakit, Belinda, Rodriguez, Jenny, Thomas, Olivier P., McCormack, Grace & Hajdu, Eduardo, 2021, New records of Demospongiae (Porifera) from Reserva Marina El Pelado (Santa Elena, Ecuador), with description of Tedania (Tedania) ecuadoriensis sp. nov., ZooKeys 1011, pp. 101-120 : 101

Callyspongia (Callyspongia) aff. californica Dickinson, 1945 sensu Cruz-Barraza and Carballo (2008) Figure 4A-H

Callyspongia cf. californica - Calabro et al. 2018: supp. inf., P3.

Material examined.

CENAIM 150820EP02-01 with fragment as MNRJ 19920, ‘Acuario’, El Pelado Islet, REMAPE, Santa Elena, Ecuador (-1.936167; -80.788922), 6 m deep, collected by K. Jaramillo, 20 Aug. 2015. CENAIM 150813EP07-07 or MNRJ 19924, 'Bajo 40', El Pelado Islet, REMAPE, Santa Elena, Ecuador (-1.938217; -80.786669), 15 m deep, collected by O. Thomas, 13 Aug. 2015. CENAIM 150825EP04-04 or MNRJ 19925, ‘Laberinto’, El Pelado Islet, REMAPE, Santa Elena, Ecuador (-1.9355; -80.7896), 5 m deep, collected by K. Jaramillo, 25 Aug. 2015 [voucher from Calabro et al. 2018]. CENAIM 160213EP04-01 or MNRJ 19949 and CENAIM 160213EP04-02 or MNRJ 19951, ‘Laberinto’, El Pelado Islet, REMAPE, Santa Elena, Ecuador (-1.9355; -80.7896), 5-7 m deep, collected by O. Thomas, 13 Feb. 2016.

Material studied for comparison.

C. californica , voucher number: IRCSET364 from Parque de la Reina Acapulco, Acapulco, México (16.8491314; -99.9015755), 4-15 m deep, collected by J.L. Carballo, 01 Jul. 2012. Molecular Evolution and Systematics (MEAS) collection at National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG).

Habit

(Fig. 4A-C ). Cushion-shaped, usually up to 2-3 cm thick only, frequently bearing short irregularly cylindrical or volcano-shaped projections topped by roundish oscula, 1-5 mm in diameter. Occasionally, larger coalescent tubes with apical oscula (over 1 cm in diameter) can also be seen. Consistency soft, easily torn, yielding moderate amounts of mucus upon collection and handling. Texture smooth. Colour in life ranging from white to blueish/purplish, becoming beige in ethanol.

Skeleton

(Fig. 4D-F ). Ectosomal architecture a neat reticulation of polygonal primary and secondary meshes, the former outlined by pauci- to multi-spicular fibres, the latter by thin very slender fibres, mostly one or two spicules across, and a single spicule long. Choanosomal architecture an irregular polygonal reticulation of pauci- to multi-spicular fibres, frequently sinuous.

Spicules

(Fig. 4G-H , Table 3 ). Oxeas in a single size category, slender, slightly irregular, mostly slightly curved or bent in the middle, mostly with slightly roundish, irregular ends, 46-83 (57, n = 31) × 1.2-5.0 µm (2.5, n = 28).

Ecology and distribution.

The sponge is quite abundant in the shallow waters at El Pelado and in the nearby continental shore, where it occurs in areas of considerable water flush, frequently in close association with Pocillopora (Lamarck, 1816) corals and many species of octocorals. Red algal turfs are frequently seen as epibionts. Callyspongia aff. californica also presents a complete family of bioactive amphiphilic compounds named callyspongidic acids that have inhibitory properties against the melanoma cell line A2058, metabolites that could be important for further chemotaxonomy studies ( Calabro et al. 2018). Its recorded depth at El Pelado is 5-20 m, but its frequent finding beached after storms suggests its occurrence in even shallower waters. This might be the southernmost record of C. californica (sensu Cruz-Barraza and Carballo 2008; non sensu Dickinson, 1945), formerly known only from Mexico ( Cruz-Barraza and Carballo 2008) and possibly California ( Sim and Bakus 1986), and first time citation to the Tropical South-eastern Pacific (but see the Remarks section). Interestingly, C. californica has also been observed in close association with Pocillopora corals in the Mexican Pacific coast.

Remarks.

Callyspongia californica , originally reported from Mexico ( Dickinson 1945), has subsequent records from California ( Sim and Bakus 1986) and several Mexican locations ( Cruz-Barraza and Carballo 2008). Dickinson (1945) highlighted the 150 µm long oxeas in his C. californica material as the most striking feature separating this species from any other. Sim and Bakus (1986) found oxeas only up to about 130 µm in California. Then, Cruz-Barraza and Carballo (2008), in spite of studying nearly topotypical specimens (those from Oaxaca), could not find oxeas larger than 117 µm. We had access to a comparative sample kindly sent on loan by JL Carballo, obtained from Acapulco (Guerrero), only about 400 km distant from the type locality at Tangola Island (Oaxaca). While spicule dimensions in the Ecuadorian specimens are even smaller, being ≤ 100 µm in the specimens sampled, the ability of C. californica to build oxeas of different sizes even in the same locality (JL Carballo pers. comm. 2019) suggests that spicule size is not a useful trait to distinguish the Ecuadorian specimens as a separate species. Despite the observed difference in spicule dimensions, overall morphological and ecological similarity strongly indicate that our specimen from Ecuador is most likely conspecific to the Mexican sample studied.

Calabro et al. (2018) provided a brief description of the Ecuadorian species in their Supporting Information, but the rationale for this name choice is only given here. Had we revised the species’ type specimen, and generated sequences for faster evolving markers, we might have been confident of Ecuadorian specimens being best assigned to C. californica , despite a Meridional occurrence about 4,000 km distant from the species’ previously known geographic range. Unfortunately, the type specimen could not be located and may have been lost/misplaced in the transfer of the Dickinson material from the University of Southern California to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles (K. Omura, pers. comm. May 31st, 2019), so we could not attempt to extract DNA from it for comparison. As such, we opted to identify the Ecuadorian species as C. aff. californica instead, for the time being. Whether subsequent Mexican records of C. californica (e.g., Carballo et al. 2004, 2008; Vega 2012) are indeed conspecific with the type specimen of this species, we cannot say. Conservatively, we suggest them being provisionally best referred to as C. aff. californica too.

Figures

Figure 4. Callyspongia (Callyspongia) aff. californica Dickinson, 1945 (sensu Cruz-Barraza and Carballo 2008) A-C specimens alive in situ: A CENAIM 150820 EP 02 - 01 B CENAIM 150813 EP 07 - 07 C specimen collected for chemical studies CENAIM 150825 EP 04 - 04, of the rarer tubular morphotype D delicate ectosomal reticulation seen through stouter subectosomal polygonal meshes E detail of ectosomal reticulation with primary and secondary meshes F detail of subectosomal reticulation showing stouter, multi-spicular tracts G oxeas H details of the terminations of the oxeas. Scale bars: 1.5 cm (A-C); 1000 µm (D); 400 µm (E-F); 50 µm (G); 50 µm (H).