Leucetta floridana ( Haeckel, 1872 )

Rützler, Klaus, Piantoni, Carla, Van, Rob W. M. & Díaz, Cristina, 2014, Diversity of sponges (Porifera) from cryptic habitats on the Belize barrier reef near Carrie Bow Cay, Zootaxa 3805 (1), pp. 1-129 : 102

Leucetta floridana ( Haeckel, 1872)

Synonymy and references. Leucetta floridana ( Haeckel, 1872) : Valderrama et al. (2009): 8, fig. 5.

Material. USNM 1229161, Carrie Bow Cay forereef cave, 18 m; K. Ruetzler col. 19 May 1979.

External morphology. An egg-shaped specimen, 28 x 16 x 16 mm, with two slightly elevated oscula (1.5 mm). Hard consistency, rough surface from large, tangential spicules. Color white.

Skeleton structure. Large triactines and tetractines are tangentially oriented and make up the cortex, tetractines have the apical actine pointing inward, into the choanosome. Spicule arrangement in the choanosome, mainly composed of small triactines, is disorganized; the smaller tetractines are most common along the canals and the atrium.

Spicules. All types are equiradiate and equiangular, actines tapering gradually to a point. Only the apical actine of tetractines is shorter than the others; sagittal deformations are rare. Measurements are lengths of actines x width at the base. The most common are the small triactines I: 116–230 x 12–25 (168 x 20) Μm; small tetractines I: 100–210 x 10–22 (137 x 16) Μm; large triactines II: 450– 1520 x 30–250 (897 x 137) Μm; large tetractines II: 270–2050 x 70 –360 (1220 x 229) Μm.

Ecology. Observed in several caves on the foerereef, 18–25 m,

Distribution. Tropical western Atlantic: Bermuda, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, to Brazil.