Cliona californiana Laubenfels, 1932

Pacheco, Cristian, Carballo, José Luis, Cortés, Jorge, Segovia, Johanna & Trejo, Alejandra, 2018, Excavating sponges from the Pacific of Central America, descriptions and a faunistic record, Zootaxa 4370 (5), pp. 451-491 : 457

Cliona californiana Laubenfels, 1932

Material examined. MZUCR .373, CIMAR. BS.24: Bahía Salinas, entre 10 y 21 m, 3.III.2011, coll. and det. Cristian Pacheco Solano. CIMAR . CU.11: Bahía Culebra, 8 m, 28.VI.2011, coll. and det. Cristian Pacheco Solano. CIMAR . LF.02: Reserva La Flor , 5 m, 14.II.2012, coll. and det. Cristian Pacheco Solano.

External morphology. Can occur in beta and gamma morphologies ( Carballo et al. 2004), but recently only recorded in alpha form. Discrete, circular papillae protruding above substrate, 0.8–2.5 mm in diameter. Live color yellow.

Excavation. Multicamerare erosion. Chambers on average 1 mm in diameter ( Fig. 5A ), irregular in shape, occasionally fusing. Erosion scars on chamber walls 30 to 66 µm in diameter, with very subtle circular ridges and sharp edges ( Fig. 5B ).

Spicules. Megascleres tylostyles and derivates, straight or slightly curved mid-shaft, tyles as a rule slightly subterminal, displaced more strongly in immature tylostyles ( Fig. 6 ). Derivates as subtylostyles or styles. No microscleres. Tylostyle dimensions: 125–306 µm (x̅ =232, σ=48.3) x 2–10 µm (x̅ =6.3, σ=1.5). Dimensions of subtylostyles or styles: 100–205 µm (x̅ =153, σ=35.6) x 3.8–8 µm (x̅ =4.4, σ=1.5).

Ecology. The specimens were found in dead massive and branching corals of Pavona sp. and Pocillopora sp. between 5 and 21 m depth.

Distribution and previous records. Laubenfels (1932) found this species in California, United States, boring in shells and dead barnacles. Later, it was located in the Gulf of California, Mexico under the names Pseudosuberites pseudos ( Dickinson 1945; Hofknecht 1978) and C. celata ( Green & Gómez 1986) . This species is very common in the Mexican Pacific and especially in the northern Sea of Cortez ( Carballo et al. 2004, 2008a; Vega 2012). In this study we report it for the first time from the Pacific coast of Nicaragua and Costa Rica ( Fig. 7 ).

Remarks. C. californiana is a member of the C. celata species complex. This group is taxonomically difficult, because only tylostyles occur, which are similar in shape and size among different species ( Schönberg et al. 2006). Carballo et al. (2004) earlier unraveled the taxonomy and various reports for C. californiana that were published under different names (see above) and redescribed the species in much detail. We therefore only provided a short description in addition to our distributional record.

Figures

FIGURE 6. Spicules of Cliona californiana in alpha morphology: A) tylostyle, B) immature, subterminal tylostyles, C) enlarged heads of tylostyles.

FIGURE 7. Distribution of Cliona californiana in the study area.

FIGURE5. Cliona californiana bioerosion.A) Erosion chamber (arrow) and B) erosion scars.