SPONGILLIDAE Gray, 1867

Pinheiro, Ulisses, Silva, Carlos & Calheira, Ludimila, 2015, Sanidaster in freshwater sponges: an unexpected spicule for the birotuled Genus Corvoheteromeyenia Ezcurra de Drago, 1979, Zoosystema 37 (3), pp. 449-456 : 451-452

Family SPONGILLIDAE Gray, 1867

Genus Corvoheteromeyenia

Ezcurra de Drago, 1979

Corvoheteromeyenia Ezcurra de Drago, 1979: 110 .

Corvomeyenia (in part) Bonetto & Ezcurra de Drago, 1966: 139. — Ezcurra de Drago 1974: 233.

TYPE SPECIES. — Corvomeyenia australis Bonetto & Ezcurra de Drago, 1966 , by original designation.

DIAGNOSIS (EMENDED). — Spongillidae with body shape encrusting. Choanosomal skeleton irregularly alveolate. Megascleres slightly curved oxeas, generally smooth, sometimes irregularly microspined. Microscleres pseudobirotule ranging in shape and shaft size. Gemmules adhered to the substrate or free in the sponge body. Foramen single and circular. Gemmular theca tri-layered with gemmuloscleres radially embedded. Gemmuloscleres birotule or sanidaster (modified from Manconi & Pronzato 2002).

REMARKS

The emended definition of Corvoheteromeyenia was made necessary by the description of the new species, which in addition to birotuled gemmuloscleres also had sanidaster gemmuloscleres.

Corvoheteromeyenia heterosclera

( Ezcurra de Drago, 1974) ( Figs 2 A-C; 3)

Corvomeyenia heterosclera Ezcurra de Drago, 1974: 233 .

For synonymy see Muricy et al. (2011).

MATERIAL STUDIED. — UFPEPOR1764, UFPEPOR1768, UFPE- POR1771, UFPEPOR1772, UFPEPOR1773, UFPEPOR1774 and UFPEPOR1775, São Francisco Basin, Paulo Afonso Municipality, Bahia State, Brazil, in fish farm tanks, (09°22’30’’S, 38°13’58’’W), U. Pinheiro coll., 06.IV.2010.

DIAGNOSIS. — Encrusting sponge, with oxeas megascleres smooth or microspined; pseudobirotule microscleres present in two types; birotuled gemmuloscleres inserted radially in the gemmules.

ECOLOGY. — The specimens were collected in clear waters of artificial environment, in fish farm tanks walls measuring 1.5 m ³ and 800 m ³, that are supplied with water from São Francisco River, with depth ranging from 10 cm to 1 m.

DESCRIPTION

The shape of this sponge is encrustant, less than 5 mm thick, it can achieve more than one metre in length. Surface is hispid and reticulated with anastomosing ridges projections, and circular oscules. Colour in life is light green ( Fig. 2 A-C), turning grayish green after preservation in ethanol 70%. Consistency soft and compressible. Oxeas megascleres are smooth (rare) or microspined (predominant) (199.7-297.8-373.5 / 9.7-12.6- 16.1 Μm), with few conical spines sparsely arranged on the shaft ( Fig. 3A, B ). Pseudobirotule microscleres of two types ( Fig. 3C, D ): type 1 (12.9-19.6-35.4 / 1.6-3.1-4.8 // 3.2- 6.1-12.9 Μm), short shaft, smooth, thin, tip terminated with three to five hooks for each pseudo-rotule. Pseudo-rotules are concave, with hooks curved towards the shaft of the spicule ( Fig. 3C ); and the type 2 (32.2-64.4-96.6 / 4.8-6.5-9.7 Μm), long shaft, with a variable number of spines, microspined in the central portion, with discreet hooks forming pseudorotules ( Fig. 3D ). Birotuled gemmuloscleres ( Fig. 3E ) (54.7- 69.4-80.5 / 4.8-7.5-12.9 // 1.6-2.2-3.2 Μm), inserted radially in the theca of gemmules ( Fig. 3H ). Present two circular and identical rotules which can vary between concave to slightly flat, with marginal minutes spines. The shaft can has smooth or compound spines (with secondary minutes spines). Gemmules (512.2-552-611.8 Μm) abundant, spread throughout the sponge body, from the surface to the base, spherical ( Fig. 3F ). Foramen single and circular ( Fig. 3G ). Gemmular theca trilayered well developed ( Fig. 3H ), inner layer present compact spongin, where gemmuloscleres are embedded radially.

REMARKS

The genus Corvoheteromeyenia was proposed by Ezcurra de Drago (1979) to allocate two species of Corvomeyenia : C. australis ( Bonetto & Ezcurra de Drago, 1966) and C. heterosclera ( Ezcurra de Drago, 1974) . Ezcurra de Drago (1979) noticed differences between the South American species and those of the other genus, based on gemmuloscleres and microscleres, and designated C. australis as the type species.

The differences between Corvoheteromeyenia species are very controvert. Just one year after have been described C. heterosclera, Bonetto et al. (1975) proposed this species as junior synonym of C. australis . However, Ezcurra de Drago (1979) recognized some differences: C. australis had variations in the size and shape (rotules) of gemmuloscleres, while C. heterosclera presents lower size variation and one type of rotules. On the other hand, Tavares et al. (2003) and Machado et al. (2012) reported two categories of gemmoscleres as diagnostic character of C. australis .

In the present material, the Sturges algorithm ( Fig. 4 ) showed only one size category of gemmuloscleres, with gradient of variation in the size and shape of rotules. These results agree parcially to Ezcurra de Drago definition, although we do not see rotules with curved hooks. Unfortunately, as the type material of both species are unavailable ( Muricy et al. 2011) we prefer to identify the present material as C. heterosclera until the review of these species be done.

Figures

FIG. 2.— Corvoheteromeyenia Ezcurra de Drago,1979,Paulo Afonso municipality,Bahia State,in the shores of São Francisco River,Brazil:A, B, Corvoheteromeyenia heterosclera (Ezcurra de Drago, 1974), in situ; C, Corvoheteromeyenia heterosclera, in situ, on the left side and Corvoheteromeyenia sanidastosclera n. sp., in situ, on the right side; D, Corvoheteromeyenia sanidastosclera n. sp., in situ. Scale bars: 1 cm.

FIG. 3. — Spicules of Corvoheteromeyenia heterosclera (Ezcurra de Drago, 1974) (UFPEPOR1771),spicular components: A, B, megasclere acanthoxea; C, D, mi- croscleres pseudobirotules; E, gemmuloscleres birotule; F, gemmule; G, foramen of gemmule; H, gemmules with gemmuloscleres inserted radially. Scale bars: A, F, 100 μm; B, C, 5 μm; D, 10 μm; E, 20 μm; G, 50 μm; H, 300 μm.

FIG. 4.— Distributionfrequency of the size-classes of the birotule gemmuloscleres of Corvoheteromeyenia heterosclera (UFPEPOR1771); (n=100). Abbreviations: x, shaft size in microns; y, shaft frequency in number of spicules per size class.