Excavating sponges from the Pacific of Central America, descriptions and a faunistic record Author Pacheco, Cristian Author Carballo, José Luis Author Cortés, Jorge Author Segovia, Johanna Author Trejo, Alejandra text Zootaxa 2018 2018-01-15 4370 5 451 491 journal article 31003 10.11646/zootaxa.4370.5.1 8d311d5f-01bd-4a08-bb54-3bcac98ea7c2 1175-5326 1147211 88C1C5A7-3C4E-416D-A716-D8B3D62E720D Cliona tropicalis Cruz-Barraza, Carballo, Bautista-Guerrero & Nava, 2011 Material examined. ICMYL .Ctr.133.FS: Bahía Culebra; 3 m , 19.XII.2012 . coll. and det. Cristian Pacheco Solano. External morphology and excavation. Material not sufficient to allow reliable description of external characters, erosion patterns or spicule sizes. Even so the species was recognized by the types of spicules. Spicules consisting of megasclere tylostyles and microsclere spirasters, not pictured, see Cruz-Barraza et al. (2011) for further details. Ecology. Found in dead Pocillopora sp. at 3 m depth. Distribution and previous records. The species has previously been observed to occur along the Pacific coast of Mexico ( Cruz-Barraza et al. 2011 ; Vega 2012 ; Baja California , Oaxaca , Revillagigedo and Marias Islands). Scott et al. (1988) reported the morphologically similar Cliona viridis Schmidt, 1862 from Costa Rica , which however has to be assumed to be an erroneous identification and may possibly have been C. tropicalis . Lacking access to their material, we cannot confirm this assumption, and thus this publication is likely the first record for C. tropicalis occurring in Costa Rica ( Fig. 19 ). Remarks. The material available for the present publication relied on only one specimen, which was too small to allow data collection for a full description. The identification was confirmed by the second author who has prior experience with this species and was an author on the original description ( Cruz-Barraza et al. 2011 ).