Sponges of the Guyana Shelf
Author
Van, Rob W. M.
text
Zootaxa
2017
1
1
225
journal article
37320
10.5281/zenodo.272951
e2c88f4c-3ac2-45f9-95e4-99b75561a081
1175-5326
272951
6D68A019-6F63-4AA4-A8B3-92D351F1F69B
Xestospongia muta
(
Schmidt, 1870
)
Figures 25
a–c
Restricted synonymy:
Schmidtia muta
Schmidt, 1870
: 44
.
Petrosia muta
;
Topsent 1920
: 8
.
Xestospongia muta
;
De Laubenfels 1936
: 70
;
Wiedenmayer 1977
: 115
, pl. 14 figs 6–7, pl. 15 figs 1–2, text-fig. 129;
Van Soest 1980
: 66
, pl. XI fig. 1, text-fig. 23.
Material examined.
RMNH
Por. 9784, 9805,
Guyana
, ‘Luymes’
Guyana
Shelf Expedition, station 65,
7.55°N
57.0833°W
, depth
63 m
, sandy bottom,
31 August 1970
;
RMNH
Por. 9914,
Suriname
, ‘
Snellius O.C.P.S.
’
Guyana
Shelf Expedition, station G7,
7.28°N
56.7933°W
, depth
64 m
, bottom sand,
7 May 1966
.
Description.
Two small damaged specimens and a fragment of this common
West
Atlantic species. The larger specimen (
Fig. 25
a) is a cup-shaped column,
14 cm
high,
12 cm
in widest diameter. Surface grooved and pitted. Color (in alcohol) brown-red outside, pale beige inside. Consistency hard, crumbly.
More complete and larger, barrel-shaped specimens, up to
50 cm
high and
45 cm
in diameter, were obtained in French
Guyana
waters by the CREOCEAN expedition.
Skeleton.
(
Fig. 25
b) Surface cover is a dense tangential reticulation of intercrossing single spicules. Choanosomal skeleton a dense mass of spicules arranged in irregular rounded meshes.
Spicules.
Oxeas only.
Oxeas (
Fig. 25
c,c1), curved, bluntly pointed, in a limited size range, 384–
421
–462
x 15
–
18.3
–22 µm.
Distribution and ecology.
Guyana
Shelf,
Florida
, and throughout the Greater Caribbean, also in NE
Brazil
, on reefs and on hard bottoms in deeper water, down to
94 m
depth (
Guyana
Shelf,
63–64 m
, CREOCEAN specimens were from
72–76 m
).
Remarks.
The present specimens share the predominance of oxeas over strongylote forms with Schmidt’s
type
and the specimens described by
Van Soest
(1980)
from
Curaçao
and
Puerto Rico
,
Zea
(1987)
from
Colombia
, and
Hajdu
et al.
(2011) from NE
Brazil
. In fact no strongyles were observed in the present specimens, contrary to Wiedenmayer’s (1977) description of the species from the Bahamas.