Cliona dioryssa (de Laubenfels, 1950 )

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 : 25-26

Cliona dioryssa (de Laubenfels, 1950)

Tables 6, 7; Figs. 17A–C , 18 A–B

Synonymy: Spirastrella dioryssa de Laubenfels (1950: 98) ; Cliona dioryssa: Rützler (1974: 17–21) , and references compiled in Muricy et al. (2011: 66).

Type locality. Bermuda .

Material examined. CNPGG-2165, Alacranes reef (22.38252°N, 89.67961°W), 5 m depth, coll. Oscar Bocardo, 19 May 2016.

Description. Burrowing specimen; size, 4.5 × 2 × 1.2 cm. Papillae or oscules not observed. Color in vivo not recorded—light purple color in ethanol. Consistency is slightly friable.

Skeleton. Bundles of tylostyles disposed perpendicular toward the surface ( Fig. 18A ). Spirasters scattered.

Spicules. Megascleres: Tylostyles smooth, in a large size range ( Fig. 17A , 18B ), 222– 253.2 (25)–292.6/2.9– 4 (1.5)–5.8 µm, with a rounded tyle (some mucron shape) 5– 6.8 (2)–8.5 µm width. Microscleres: Spiraster I ( Fig. 17B ), stout spirasters with very thin and small, simple thorns, 8.2– 15 (5)–21.3/ up to 6 µm. Spirasters II ( Fig. 17C ), thin spirasters, longer and slender than the previous category, with very thin and small thorns (bifurcated or trifurcated tips); 22– 39.5 (5)–60/ up to 2 µm ( Fig. 17C ).

Distribution: Mexico (current records), Bermudas (de Laubenfels 1950), Brazil ( Muricy et al. 2011).

Remarks. De Laubenfels (1950) described C. dioryssa as Spirastrella dioryssa in Bermudas (type locality), whose main characteristic is the stout spirasters in two categories. However, de Laubenfels’ description was relatively brief regarding the characteristics and measurements of the spirasters ( Table 2). Later, Rützler (1974) redescribed the species more extensively in his revision “The borrowing sponges of Bermuda ”, where the spirasters were reported as – Type I stout , with a thick shaft densely set with large strong spines, most of which are joined at the base. Type II is more delicate, with a long slender shaft and small spines, which are usually well spaced from each other. Reduction of number or size of spines is very common –. Our specimen’s spirasters match with the description given by Rützler (1974), but the spirasters II in our material are longer ( Table 2).

The color in vivo is described as bright orange in de Laubenfels (1950) and yellow to orange in Rützler (1974). Unfortunately, we do not know the color in vivo of our material since it was inside a piece of coral, which was fixed in ethanol. Thus, the specimen examined was not found until laboratory analysis. Further, the light purple color of the tissue in ethanol differs from the material of C. dioryssa described by Rützler (1974). Based on spiculation, we believe that our material can be classified as C. dioryssa . The species has been recorded from the Bermuda Islands (de Laubenfels 1950; Rützler 1974) and Brazil ( Muricy et al. 2011). This is the first record of the species for the GoM, thus widening its distribution.

Figures

FIGURE 17. Cliona dioryssa (de Laubenfels, 1950) (CNPGG-2165), SEM spicules: A. tylostyle; B. spirasters II. C. spirasters I. Scale bars: A = 100 µm, B–C = 10 µm.

FIGURE 18. Cliona dioryssa (CNPGG-2165), skeleton and spicules: A. transversal section of the skeleton; B. tylostyles and spirasters. Cliona flavifodina (CNPGG-2386), habitus and spicules: C. burrowing habit (into a piece of coral); D. tylostyles and spirasters, arrows pointing to spirasters (one zoomed in). Scale bars: A–B and D (including zoomed-in) = 25 µm; C = 10 mm.