Dercitus Stoeba latex (Moraes & Muricy, 2007)

Van Soest, Rob W. M., Beglinger, Elly J. & De Voogd, Nicole J., 2010, Skeletons in confusion: a review of astrophorid sponges with (dicho-) calthrops as structural megascleres (Porifera, Demospongiae, Astrophorida), ZooKeys 68, pp. 1-88 : 29-30

Dercitus Stoeba latex (Moraes & Muricy, 2007)

Stoeba latex Moraes and Muricy 2007: 1388, figs 2-3.

Material examined.

None.

Holotype.

MNRJ 8559, Belmonte Islet Wall, São Pedro e São Paulo Archipelago, Brazil, 0.9167°N; 29.35°W, 30 m depth, coll. F. Moraes, 15 July 2004.

Description

(from Moraes and Muricy 2007). Thickly encrusting to massive, reddish- brown (darker in preservation), surface smooth, ‘stretched’; oscules 0.5-3 mm, size up to 10 × 20 cm. Consistency firm, rubbery. Ectosome provided with spherulous cells and sanidaster microscleres, choanosome compact, with randomly dispersed calthrops.

Spicules. Calthrops 42-212 × 7.5-25 µm. Sanidasters 10-15 × 1 µm.

Habitat.

Vertical walls and overhangs, 4-30 m.

Distribution.

Offshore archipelagoes to the NE of Brazil.

Remarks.

The red colour is shared with Dercitus (Stoeba) bahamensis sp. n., but this has dichocalthrops and the spicule sizes are also different. Below we report an undescribed Dercitus (Stoeba) spec. from Bonaire for which insufficient material was left after making preparation. It differs in habit (insinuating) and spicule size (calthrops cladi smaller, only up to 186 × 16 µm, and sanidasters slightly larger, up to 18 × 1.5 µm). Cladi of calthrops of the Bonaire material are frequently bifid and some?auxiliary oxeas were present in the slides. Nevertheless, similarities are close enough to reckon with the possibility that the two are conspecific members of a variable species.