A review of the Hexactinellida (Porifera) of Chile, with the first record of Caulophacus Schulze, 1885 (Lyssacinosida: Rossellidae) from the Southeastern Pacific Ocean
Author
Reiswig, Henry M.
Author
Araya, Juan Francisco
text
Zootaxa
2014
3889
3
414
428
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.3889.3.4
69f8e322-7223-4610-ba3c-2b7d214522ba
1175-5326
229025
EB84D779-C330-4B93-BE69-47D8CEBE312F
Caulophacus (Caulophacus) chilense
sp. n.
(
Figs. 1
&
2
,
Table 1
)
Material examined.
Holotype
: MNHNCL-POR100, FV Juan Antonio, 0
7 January 2014
, about
50 km
NO of Caldera, Atacama Region,
Chile
.
26°44’00” S
;
71°07’00” W
,
1300–1800 m
, dry.
Description.
The
holotype
(
Fig. 1
A) is
320 mm
in total length composed of an intact basal plate,
30 x
51
mm in widths, which was attached to hard substratum, a thin hollow curved stem
277 mm
long, surmounted by a body
28 mm
in height. The stem varies in diameter from 5.0 mm near the basal attachment to
8.4 mm
just below the body; the lumen at the broken point
9 cm
above the base is 2.0 mm in diameter and the wall is
1.5 mm
in thickness. Loose spicules are absent from a few mm below the body attachment to its base. The body (
Fig. 1
B) is a shallow funnel,
81 x
65 mm
in diameters with a central depression of
10.4 mm
. It is two mm thick at its rounded margin and
20 mm
thick at the center. The upper (atrial) body surface (
Fig. 1
C) is relatively smooth, covered by a very fine, inconspicuous, felt-like lattice of atrial spicules (
Fig. 1
D). The lateral (dermal) surface (
Fig. 1
E) is more transparent, with a conspicuous network of white strands of upward radiating choanosomal diactins surrounding large inhalant canals seen through the surface lattice (
Fig. 1
E). The overlying lattice of dermalia and hypodermalia (
Fig. 1
F) is thin and quite regular in arrangement. A marginal fringe is not evident at the junction of dermal and atrial surfaces. Color of the dry specimen is very light tan.
Megascleres are dermal pinular hexactins and rare pentactins, atrial pinular hexactins and rare pentactins, choanosomal and stalk diactins, hypodermal and hypoatrial pentactins, and choanosomal hexactins. Spicule dimensions are given in
Table 1
. Dermalia are pinular hexactins and rare pentactins (
Fig. 2
A) with bushy spindleshaped distal ray and entirely rough tangential and proximal rays. The pinular ray is quite variable in shape with a few ovoid in profile. Maximum thickness occurs at 65% of the distance from the axial cross. About 4% of these are pentactins. Atrialia (
Fig. 2
B) are similar but slightly smaller than dermalia in mean dimensions and especially in maximum width of the pinular ray. The pinular rays of both dermalia and atrialia lack apical spines, their tips being gently rounded in profile. Choanosomal diactins of the body (
Fig. 2
C) are slightly curved and have rounded, occasionally inflated, rough terminal ends with smooth caps. The central swelling is generally inconspicuous. The diactins of the stalk are fused by synapticula to form a rigid framework; they are larger than the free body diactins but otherwise similar. Hypodermalia (
Fig. 2
D) are large regular oxypentactins, some of which bear macrospines near the base of their tapered rays: of 42 spicules examined, 45% were entirely smooth, 19% bore such spines only on proximal rays and 36% had spines on both tangential and proximal rays. Rays end with subterminal roughness behind a smooth rounded cap. Hypoatrialia (
Fig. 2
E) are much smaller, mean tangential rays are 62% of those of dermalia. These spicules have macrospines on all tangential and proximal rays. Tangential ray ends are sharply pointed and rough. Choanosomal hexactins (
Fig. 2
F) are larger than the hypodermalia and hypoatrialia. Their rays generally all bear macrospines (96% of 168) but a few have them restricted to one short ray (1%) and some bear no macrospines at all (2%). Ray tips are rough and abruptly pointed.
Microscleres are discohexactins (91% of 200), hemidiscohexasters (5.5%) and two forms of discohexasters (together 3.5%). The discohexactins (
Fig. 2
G) are generally regular with thorned rays ending in large semianchorate tips with 5–6 marginal claws. Occasionally one ray is bent back and very rarely the terminal disc is reduced to a single pointed hook. The hemidiscohexasters (
Fig. 2
H) are similar to the discohexactins but one or more rarely two or three rays are divided near their origin into two terminal rays. Discohexasters A (
Fig.
2
I) are as robust as the discohexactins but rare (0.2%); each primary ray is divided near its origin into two or three terminal rays. Discohexasters B (
Fig. 2
G) are much smaller and thinner than all other microscleres, are rare (3%) and are restricted to the atrial side of the body. They have short primary rays divided into 2–5 straight terminal rays ending in small discs with 4–6 marginal claws. This spicule was not located in SEM preparations hence a light micrograph (
Fig. 2
J) is used to document their occurrence and form.
TABLE 1.
Spicule dimensions of
Caulophacus chilense
,
sp. nov.
, MNHNCl-POR101, from Caldera, Region of Atacama, Chile (dimensions in µm).
parameter |
mean |
s.d. |
range |
no. |
Dermal pinule, pinule ray length |
205 |
31 |
126–299 |
50 |
pinule ray basal width |
12.8 |
2.4 |
7.8–17.2 |
50 |
pinule ray maximum width |
37.7 |
5.5 |
26.5–48.4 |
50 |
tangential ray length |
116 |
14 |
82–143 |
50 |
tangential ray width |
9.9 |
1.3 |
7,1–12.7 |
50 |
proximal ray length |
113 |
10 |
89–138 |
48 |
proximal ray width |
10.0 |
1.5 |
6.6–12.8 |
48 |
Atrial pinule, pinule ray length |
191 |
41 |
77–316 |
50 |
pinule ray basal width |
10.8 |
1.7 |
7.1–15.4 |
50 |
pinule ray maximum width |
27.9 |
5.5 |
16.8–42.4 |
50 |
tangential ray length |
105 |
14 |
79–152 |
50 |
tangential ray width |
8.8 |
1.2 |
6.3–11.6 |
50 |
proximal ray length |
99 |
16 |
57–139 |
47 |
proximal ray width |
9.2 |
1.5 |
6.1–13.6 |
47 |
Choanosomal diactin length |
2112 |
408 |
1043–2879 |
50 |
width |
10.3 |
2.3 |
6.8–15.6 |
50 |
Stalk top diactin length |
3996 |
821 |
2603–5156 |
27 |
width |
13.1 |
3.8 |
7.4–24.2 |
27 |
Hypodermalia tangential ray length |
528 |
111 |
313–728 |
50 |
width |
27.6 |
6.3 |
14.0–43.0 |
50 |
proximal ray length |
623 |
182 |
251–1018 |
46 |
width |
26.9 |
5.4 |
16.8–39.0 |
46 |
Hypoatrialia tangential ray length |
327 |
118 |
164–721 |
50 |
width |
17.3 |
4.5 |
9.3–27.4 |
50 |
proximal ray length |
334 |
124 |
171–732 |
50 |
width |
18.0 |
4.8 |
11.6–32.6 |
50 |
Choanosomal hexactin ray length |
816 |
190 |
357–1194 |
50 |
width |
36.8 |
7.8 |
16.4–50.6 |
50 |
Discohexactin diameter |
190 |
27 |
114–249 |
50 |
terminal disc diameter |
17.7 |
2.9 |
10.8–22.7 |
50 |
minimum ray width |
6.6 |
1.0 |
4.2–8.7 |
50 |
Hemidiscohexaster diameter |
154 |
28 |
104–204 |
50 |
primary ray length |
6.5 |
3.2 |
1.6–19.2 |
50 |
secondary ray length |
69.3 |
14.1 |
31.4–93.9 |
50 |
Discohexaster A (thick ray) diameter |
111 |
na |
93–132 |
3 |
primary ray length |
3.8 |
na |
3.3-4.1 |
3 |
secondary ray length |
51.8 |
na |
44.2–63.3 |
3 |
Discohexaster B (thin ray) diameter |
81 |
19 |
38–124 |
50 |
primary ray length |
4.4 |
1.0 |
1.9–6.7 |
50 |
secondary ray length |
36.6 |
9.3 |
15.5–57.2 |
50 |
FIGURE 1.
Caulophacus chilense
sp. nov.
A. The holotype, dried. B. The upper body. C. Surface of the atrial or top surface. D. Close-up image of the irregular atrial lattice. E. Surface of the derma or lower body surface with radiating subdermal strands of diactins. F. Close-up of the more regular dermal lattice of pinular hexactins supported by a coarser lattice of hypodermal pentactins.
Etymology.
The species name,
chilense
, refers to the location of collection:
Chile
.
Remarks.
The new specimen described here lacks onychoidal and oxyoidal microscleres and thus is excluded from the subgenera
Caulodiscus
Ijima 1927
,
Oxydiscus
Janussen et al. 2004
and
Caulophacella
Lendenfeld 1915
; it is assignable only to subgenus
Caulophacus
Schulze 1885
. Within the subgenus, it cannot be assigned to
C. antarcticus
Schulze and Kirkpatrick 1910
,
C. basispinosus
Lévi 1964
, or
C. galathea
Lévi 1964
since these three species lack discohexasters. It is excluded from 13 species which possess lophodiscohexasters characterized by having four or more terminal rays on each primary ray:
C. arcticus
(Hansen, 1885)
,
C. cyanae
Boury-Esnault and De Vos 1988
,
C. discohexactinus
Janussen et al.2004
,
C, discohexaster
Tabachnick and Lévi 2004
,
C. elegans
Schulze 1885
,
C. hadalis
Lévi 1964
,
C. instabilis
Topsent 1910
,
C. latus
Schulze 1886
,
C. oviformis
Schulze 1886
,
C. pipetta
(
Schulze 1886
)
,
C. schulzei
Wilson 1904
,
C. scotiae
Topsent 1910
and
C. variens
Tabachnick 1988
. Since the discohexactins of the new form are considerably less than 200 µm, it cannot be a member of the two species
C. adakensis
Reiswig and Stone 2013
or
C. agassizi
Schulze 1899
. Finally, it is separated from
C. abyssalis
Tabachnick 1990
by the pinular rays of dermalia differing drastically in shape in the two forms and having a single length range instead of two size classes of those rays (126–299 µm in the new form vs 100–180 µm and 320–400 µm in
C. abyssalis
). Based upon these and many other differences from the presently recognized members of the subgenus, it is clear that the form described here is a new species designated here as
Caulophacus (Caulophacus) chilense
sp. n.
FIGURE 2.
Caulophacus chilense
sp. nov.
spicules. A. Three dermal pinules including two normal hexactine forms and one uncommon pentactine form (all pinules to same scale). B. Two atrial hexactine pinules. C. A choanosome diactin, whole and enlargements of the tip and center. D. Hypodermal pentactin, whole and enlarged tangential ray end. E. Two whole hypoatrial pentactins showing different lengths of proximal rays, and enlargements of the ray ends. F. Choanosomal hexactin, whole and enlargement of a ray end and the coarsely spined central area. G. Discohexactin and enlarged ray end (all whole microscleres at same scale). H. Hemidiscohexaster. I. Discohexaster A. J. Small thin-rayed discohexaster B shown from LM since this form was not encountered in SEM surveys.
Associated fauna only include the verrucid cirripedian
Gibbosaverruca
sp., with three specimens growing on the stalk of the new
Caulophacus
species; these barnacles are currently under description (Araya & Newman
in preparation
).