Cladorhiza bathycrinoides Koltun, 1955

Reiswig, Henry M., 2020, Report of Cladorhiza bathycrinoides Koltun (Demospongiae) from North America and a new species of Farrea (Hexactinellida) among sponges from Cordell Bank, California, Zootaxa 4747 (3), pp. 562-574 : 564-566

Cladorhiza bathycrinoides Koltun, 1955

( Figs. 2 & 3 , Table 1 )

Synonymy. Cladorhiza bathycrinoides, Koltun 1955 , 48, ( Israel translation, 65); 1958, 50; 1959, 80, (Canadian translation, 50).

Material examined. CAS 223280, col. no. NA085-005-A, E/ V Nautilus w ROVs Hercules & Argus, Cordell Bank, Calif. , 38.21ºN, 123.70ºW. 2092.1 m, 07 Aug. 2017.

Description. The specimen, when preserved, is a small crinorhyzid Cladorhiza , 61.6 mm in total length, with a semi-ovoid body bearing 13 short, stiff, stubby tentacles emanating in a single whorl from the truncate distal end, all borne on a thin incomplete proximal stalk ( Fig. 2A ). The incomplete stalk is the longest part, length 36.9 mm, and 1.0– 1.2 –1.6 (n = 15) mm in diameter. The body is 11.9 mm in length and 9.1 mm in diameter at its upper truncate end. The stubby tentacles ( Fig. 2B ) are curled inwards, fused at points of contact and probably strongly contracted; they are uniform in diameter, 0.63– 0.95 –1.38 (n = 10) mm, from base to the sharply tapered tip and about 14 mm long, 21 mm if uncurled; they bear no filaments. The body is covered by a plush of styles projecting 0.38- 0.72 –1.11 (n = 21) mm, pointed end out, from the surface ( Fig. 2C ) and varying in angle from downwards on the lower body (-26º) to perpendicular in the mid-body to nearly parallel (+86º) on the upper body surface. There is no evidence of an aquiferous system or the pores connecting it to the outside. Color is very light tan when preserved.

The video recorded during collection and the grab from it ( Fig. 2D ), although of poor resolution, show that in life the body is inflated and the tentacles are longer (33–35 mm), supple, and arrayed horizontally from the top of the inflated body and hang downwards distally. The stalk is 79 mm long and inserted into soft sediment. The lower stalk was not collected.

The skeletal framework is a typical cladorhizid type with axial bundles of styles firmly embedded in a dense collagenous matrix and covered by a layer of smaller styles in living tissues. The only structural component bearing a cover of prey-capturing anisochelae are the tentacles ( Figs. 2E, F ). Internal structure of the body has not been examined.

Spicules (for data see Table 1 ). Megascleres occur as four classes of styles (distinguished by t-tests) and very few strongyles. Styles 1 ( Fig. 3A ) are found as spicules of the stalk axis, stalk cover, internal body and projecting body cover; overall combined data for these are length 1028– 1861 –2186 (n = 309) µm, width 2.7– 25.8 –44.3 (n = 301) µm. Styles 2 ( Fig. 3B ) are found only in tentacle axes. Styles 3 (not figured) occur in the stalk cover. Styles 4 ( Fig. 3C ), the smallest styles, occur only in the tentacles. Rare strongyles are found only in the stalk cover layer. Microscleres are a single class of anchorate anisochelae ( Fig. 3D ) and one class of sigmas ( Fig. 3E ). The anisochelae ( Fig. 3D ) have a broad upper end with three well separated broad alae and a strong shaft with edges flared in midupper part; the lower end has three unornamented recurved teeth. The anisochelae form a cover layer on only the tentacles but are nonetheless recovered as common spicules in preparations of the body and upper shaft cover layer. Sigmas ( Fig. 3E ) are contort. They occur mainly in the body tissues.

Distribution. Sea of Okhotsk, Pacific coast of the Kurile Islands, and Cordell Bank, California, U.S. A, at depths of 151–3400 m on silty and sandy bottoms.

Remarks. Of the 13 species of known crinorhyzid Cladorhiza , only five have fewer than 25 tentacles. Anisochela length distinguishes the present specimen from four of these five. Those of C. inversa Ridley & Dendy 1886 are given as 22–27 µm (Castello-Branco, et al. 2016) (vs mean of 58 µm here); those of C. nicoleae Castello-Branco et al. 2016 are 33–44 µm; those of C. pentacrinus Dendy 1887 are 38 µm; those of C. ephyrula Lévi 1964 are 75–88 µm. Most published data for C. bathycrinoides and the description of the body is compatible with those of the present specimen. Styles of C. bathycrinoides are 551–2132 µm in length (vs 1028–2186 µm here), anisochelae 35–59 µm (vs 43.5–71.0 µm here), the body is rough as it is here, and the appendages (tentacles here) are curved inwards and about the same length as the body when preserved, as is the case here. A rhizoid attachment is well substantiated in Koltun’s specimens from the Northwest Pacific coast. The only significant difference between C. bathycrinoides and the Cordell Bank specimen are details of the sigmas. Koltun reported two classes of sigmas, one as large sigmas 33-111 µm in length and figured as flat, and the second as sickle-shaped sigmas 37–44 µm in length figured as sigmancistras (vs one class of 54.2–106.5 µm length here) The Cordell Bank specimen has only one class of sigmas, both flat and contort, but none with the discontinuity near the tip shown in Koltun’s figure of the sickle-shaped sigma of C. bathycrinoides . This difference is not considered important enough to justify erection of a new species group for the Cordell Bank specimen. The moderately extensive description of this specimen is warranted to ensure that other specimens of this species in the large intervening geographical areas may be more easily recognized.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Cladorhiza bathycrinoides, body. A. Images of both sides of the preserved specimen. B. Closer view of the curled tentacles. C. In situ image of video frame grab before collection. D. Projecting diactins of body surface. E. A tentacle removed from the body and dried for SEM. F. Close view of tentacle surface with dense anisochelae cover (SEM). Photo C credit: OET/ NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries.

FIGURE 3. Cladorhiza bathycrinoides spicules, SEM. A. Style 1b, one complete and magnified ends from the stalk axis. B. Style 2, two complete and magnified ends from the tentacle axis. C. Style 4, one complete and magnified ends from the tentacle subdermis. All styles are at the same scale as in A. D. Four views of anchorate anisochelae from tentacle cover. E. Two sigmas from the stalk cover. at the same scale as D.