Dysidea cf. etheria De Laubenfels, 1936

Van, Rob W. M., 2017, Sponges of the Guyana Shelf, Zootaxa 1, pp. 1-225 : 21

Dysidea cf. etheria De Laubenfels, 1936

Figures 11 a–b

Material examined. RMNH Por. 9733, Suriname, ‘Luymes’ Guyana Shelf Expedition, station 5, 6.6°N 53.55°W, depth 44 m, trawl, bottom calcareous sand, 24 August 1970 ; RMNH Por. 9869, Suriname, ‘ Snellius O.C.P.S. ’ Guyana Shelf Expedition, station F45, 6.4417°N 56.5467°W, depth 34 m, Van Veen grab, 7 May 1966 ; RMNH Por. 9950, 10510, Suriname, ‘ Snellius O.C.P.S. ’ Guyana Shelf Expedition, station F46, 6.312°N 56.57°W, depth 25–29 m, bottom sand, 7 May 1966 .

Description. ( Fig. 11 a) Usually rather flattened spinose branches. Conules about 2 mm high, 3–4 mm apart. Color in alcohol brownish. Consistency, dependent of the material coring the fibers, soft, or more crispy.

Skeleton. ( Fig. 11 b) Reticulation of cored spongin fibers. Ascending fibers 100–150 µm in diameter, lying at distances of 300–500 µm, cored by sand grains or broken spicules. Connecting fibers less than 100 µm in diameter, lightly cored or uncored, arranged irregularly.

Distribution and ecology. Widespread, reported from the Greater Caribbean and NE Brazil, from shallow water down to 44 m ( Guyana Shelf, 25–44 m).

Remarks. The identification of preserved Dysidea specimens lacking color information such as the present material remains uncertain, so it is provisionally assigned to D. etheria .

Figures

FIGURE 11. Dysidea etheria De Laubenfels, 1936, a, habitus of RMNH Por. 9353 (scale bar = 1 cm), b. light microscopic image of cross section of skeleton of RMNH 10510.