Suberites kumeyaay, Turner & Rouse & Weigel & Janusson & Lemay & Thacker, 2024

Turner, Thomas L., Rouse, Greg W., Weigel, Brooke L., Janusson, Carly, Lemay, Matthew A. & Thacker, Robert W., 2024, Taxonomy and phylogeny of the family Suberitidae (Porifera: Demospongiae) in California, Zootaxa 5447 (1), pp. 1-28 : 12-13

Suberites kumeyaay sp. nov. Turner 2024

Figures 1 , 5

Material examined. Holotype: CASIZ 236800 , San Diego Bay , 14.25 m, 8/31/23 ; Paratypes: CASIZ 236798 , Offshore San Diego , (32.53197, -117.18800), 31 m , 7/25/17; CASIZ 236799 , San Diego Bay , 10 m , 8/17/98; UCSB-IZC00063177 , San Diego Bay , 10 m , 8/13/98; SBMNH 714977 , San Diego Bay , 10 m , 8/14/98; SBMNH 714978 , San Diego Bay , 10 m , 8/24/98.

Etymology. Named for the Kumeyaay people, who have inhabited the San Diego area since pre-Columbian times.

Morphology. Massive, amorphous, lobate sponges. Bright orange to brownish orange alive, light brown preserved. The holotype is a roughly triangular lobe cut from a larger sponge, 9 x 7 x 2 cm across. It has scattered oscula, 1–5 mm in diameter. Dried samples available for examination measure up to 22 x 10 cm, but field photos indicate larger sponges are sometimes found. The holotype was preserved in 95% ethanol, but other samples were preserved in formalin and/or dried.

Skeleton. Ectosomal skeleton of tylostyles in upright bouquets (figure 5D), with microstrongyles among the bouquets. Choanosomal skeleton of tylostyles in confusion with no apparent pattern. A few microstrongyles are found scattered in the choanosome, but are much less abundant than at sponge surface.

Spicules. Long and short tylostyles, with spined centrotylote strongyles as microscleres.

Tylostyles: usually slightly curved and weakly fusiform (thickest in center), but longest tylostyles are often straight. Heads are typically round and terminal, but frequently off-center and sometimes sub-terminal (figure 5E). The length distribution is bimodal, but with many styles of intermediate size that make it difficult to categorize spicules as short vs. long. Choanosomal styles average 60% longer than ectosomal styles.

Holotype. Ectosome, 121–193–272 x 5–7–10 μm (n=40); choanosome, 151–260–305 x 1–7–9 μm (n=40); both domains combined, 121–226–305 x 1–7–10 μm (n=80).

All samples pooled, 81–223–324 x 1–7–13 μm (n=338), with modes at 135 and 285 μm.

Centrotylote microstrongyles: microspined, but appearing smooth under light microscopy. Swollen center variable from well-developed to barely present (figure 5C); it is generally in the center but sometimes off-center or at one end. Spicules usually slightly curved but sometimes straight. Holotype: 13–29–45 x 1–2–3 μm (n=97 length, n=35 width). All samples pooled: 13–28–45 x 1–2–4 μm (n=175 length, n=112 width).

Distribution and habitat. Common in the shallow waters of San Diego Bay in Southern California. One sample was also found 6 km offshore of San Diego in 31 m of water.

Remarks. Environmental monitoring projects in San Diego Bay, in extreme southern California, frequently yield large Suberites that are not associated with gastropod shells or hermit crabs; these were previously referred to as “ Porifera sp. SD 4” by the Southern California Association of Marine Invertebrate Taxonomists (Megan Lilly, City of San Diego, pers. comm.). These differ from Suberites californiana sp. nov. in that they are 1) not associated with gastropod shells and hermit crabs, 2) found in shallow water (4–31 m, vs. 180–242 m for S. californiana ), 3) have much shorter tylostyles (modes at 135 and 285 μm vs. 250 and 600 μm for S. californiana ; maximum lengths 305–324 μm vs. 600–693 μm for S. californiana ), and 4) possess microstrongyles that are slightly, but significantly (p<0.001) longer than S. californiana (mean = 28 μm vs. 23 μm for S. californiana ). Suberites kumeyaay sp. nov. is also morphologically distinguished from S. latus in that they are 1) not associated with gastropod shells and hermit crabs, 2) have abundant ectosomal microscleres (vs. rare and/or choanosomal in S. latus ), 3) have slightly shorter tylostyles (modes at 135 and 285 μm vs. 170 and 310 μm for S. latus ; maximum lengths 305–324 μm vs. 354–409 μm for S. latus ), and 4) possess microstrongyles that are slightly, but significantly (p<0.001) longer than S. latus (mean = 28 μm vs. 24 μm for S. latus ). It is easily differentiated from all other Suberites in the region, which lack microscleres.

Previously collected samples of S. kumeyaay sp. nov. were either preserved in formalin or dried, but we were able to generate 28S sequence from a freshly collected sample, preserved in ethanol, graciously collected for this purpose by Brandon L. Stidum. This 28S sequence is most similar to S. ficus , a North Atlantic species that is very morphologically similar to S. kumeyaay sp. nov. These species are quite genetically divergent, however, with 3.60% pairwise sequence differences, which is much higher than the sympatric, reproductively isolated S. ficus and S. pagorum (0.84% divergence). Combined with their highly disjunct distribution, this leads to confidence in assigning Southern California samples a new species.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Maximum likelihood phylogeny of the 28S locus. Genbank accession numbers and collection locations (when known) are shown; bold indicates new sequences. Asterisks at nodes indicate SH-aLRT ≥ 80% and UFbootstrap ≥ 95%. Scale bar indicates substitutions per site. Asterisks in node names indicate type species of a genus.

FIGURE 5. Suberites kumeyaay. A–B: Field photos of San Diego Bay sponges before preservation. C: centrotylote microstrongyles. D: Cross-section showing ecotosomal brushes and confused interior. E: example tylostyles, including one with slightly off-center head (left), slightly non-terminal head (center) and rare centrotylote strongyle modification (bottom). C–E from holotype.