Cinachyrella alloclada ( Uliczka, 1929 )

Cárdenas, Paco, Menegola, Carla, Rapp, Hans Tore & Díaz, Maria Cristina, 2009, Morphological description and DNA barcodes of shallow-water Tetractinellida (Porifera: Demospongiae) from Bocas del Toro, Panama, with description of a new species, Zootaxa 2276, pp. 1-39 : 6-7

Cinachyrella alloclada ( Uliczka, 1929)

( Figure 2 )

Synonyms ( Rützler & Smith 1992).

Cinachyra alloclada Uliczka, 1929: 41 , figs. 11–15, pl. I, figs. 2–3. Trachygellius cinachyra de Laubenfels, 1936b: 158, pl. 18, fig. 1. Cinachyrella alloclada ( Uliczka, 1929) : Rützler 1987: 200, figs. 1d, f; 2a–d; 3a; 5a–b.

Holotype. ZMB 4921, Dry Tortugas, Florida (not seen).

Material. ZMBN 81788, fragment collected at Caracol Reef, 15 m depth.

Additional material examined. Cinachyrella alloclada , UFBA-POR 2565, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil; ZMBN 82980, Sweetings Cay, Grand Bahama Island, Bahamas, 15 m depth; ZMBN 82981, Key Largo, Florida, U.S.A.

Outer morphology ( Fig. 2 A). Massive, subglobular orange (ca 10 cm of diameter), hispid. One obvious oscule at the top of the sponge. Covered with algae and sediments.

Skeleton ( Fig. 2 B). Radial bundles of oxeas cross the choanosome until and beyond the surface. A whitish ectosome layer is visible with the naked eye (ca 0.9 mm), it has less sigmas than in the choanosome. Anatriaenes are tangled with the oxea bundles. The cladomes of anatriaenes are placed in or just under the ectosome layer, or protruding beyond the surface. Anatriaenes outnumber protriaenes. Many brownish crystalline round structures (diameter of 68–90 µm) are present in the choanosome, only visible in thick sections. Sediments, foreign spicules, foraminifera and diatoms are fairly abundant in the sponge.

Spicules ( Fig. 2 C–F). Megascleres: (a) oxeas I, large, length: 2054– 2989.1 –3666 µm; width: 30– 40.2 –50 µm. (b) oxeas II ( Fig. 2 C–D), smooth, slightly bent, less common than oxeas I, length: 95– 147.5 –170 µm; width: 2– 5.3 –10.6 µm. (c) protriaenes, width of rhabdome tends to increase from cladome base, rhabdome length: 3110– 3486 –4200 µm (N=3); rhabdome width: 3.5– 8.2 –13.5 µm (N=17); clad length: 54– 122.5 –182 µm (N=17). (d) anatriaenes ( Fig. 2 E), very common, rhabdome length: 1330– 2208.7 –2640 µm (N=8); rhabdome width: 3.5– 5.3 –7 µm; clad length: 48– 73.2 –95 µm. Microscleres: (e) sigmaspires ( Fig. 2 F), spiny, length: 8.2– 9.8 –12.4 µm; width: 0.7– 1 –1.6 µm.

Habitat in the Bocas del Toro region. Reef, 5–20 m depth.

Distribution. North and South Carolina, U.S.A. ( Wells et al. 1960; Rützler & Smith 1992); Georgia, U.S.A. ( Freeman et al. 2007); Florida, U.S.A. ( Uliczka 1929; de Laubenfels 1936b; Little 1963; Rützler & Smith 1992); Bermuda (de Laubenfels 1950); Bahamas ( Wiedenmayer 1977; Rützler & Smith 1992); Cuba ( Alcolado 2002); Jamaica (Lehnert & van Soest 1998); Curaçao (van Soest 1981); Costa-Rica ( Cortés 1996); Panama ( Collin et al. 2005; Díaz 2005); Colombia (Díaz 2007); Venezuela ( Alvarez et al. 1991); Brazil (Mothes de Moraes 1980; Lazoski et al. 1999; Cedro et al. 2007); Azores and Senegal: doubtful identifications because of geographical distance ( Barnathan et al. 1992; Moss 1992).

Remarks and discussion. Our specimen of C. alloclada fitted with the description of the species. We had two size categories of oxeas instead of three, but it has been shown that one size class could be absent ( Rützler & Smith 1992). The size of the smallest oxea category is very variable, averaging 147.5 µm in our specimen, 159 µm in South-East Brazil (Mothes de Moraes 1980), 355 µm in South-Eastern U.S.A. ( Rützler & Smith 1992) and 837 µm in Bahia, Brazil ( Lazoski et al. 1999). The Florida specimen had sigmaspires with a much wider size range (11–21 µm). Our specimen had anatriaenes with an oval umbrella shape ( Fig. 2 E), just as the ones illustrated by Rützler and Smith (1992). On the other hand, anatriaenes of UFBA 2565 POR (Bahia, Brazil) had a depressed apex and clads that start growing horizontally before bending down.

C. alloclada has been the most common Cinachyrella reported in the Bocas del Toro region ( Guzman & Guevara 1999; Guzman & Guevara 2001; Díaz 2005; Erwin & Thacker 2007).

For an unknown reason, amplification of the molecular markers did not succeed. PCRs were also difficult with the other Cinachyrella specimens of this study.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Cinachyrella alloclada (Uliczka, 1929) [ZMBN 81788]: A. Specimen in situ. Scale: 1 cm; B. Cross – section showing the skeletal architecture. Scale: 1 mm; C. Oxea II. Scale: 20 µm; D. Oxea II. Scale: 20 µm; E. Anatriaenes. Scale: 20 µm; F. Sigmaspire. Scale: 1 µm.