Latrunculia lunaviridis Samaai, Gibbons, Kelly & Davies-Coleman, 2003, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Samaai, Toufiek
name: Gibbons, Mark J.
name: Kelly, Michelle
name: Davies-Coleman, Mike
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2003
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Porifera
Demospongiae
Poecilosclerida
Latrunculiidae
Latrunculia
Latrunculia lunaviridis

description: Latrunculia lunaviridis sp. nov. (Figs 3 A, 4B, 5B)
Holotype material. BMNH 1996.7.3.6: Ouderkraal, Southpaw, Cape Town, South Africa, 33 59’S, 18 22’E, collected by P. Coetzee, University of Port Elizabeth, 25 February 1996, 17– 20 m, a fragment of the type has been deposited in the South African Museum, Cape Town (SAM H­ 4960).
Paratype material. SAM H­ 4960: Ouderkraal, Southpaw, Cape Town, South Africa, 33 59’S, 18 22’E, collected by P. Coetzee, University of Port Elizabeth, 27 February 1996, 17– 20 m; SAM H­ 4961: Ouderkraal, Southpaw, Cape Town, South Africa, 33 59’S, 18 22’E, collected by P. Coetzee, University of Port Elizabeth, 25 February 1996, 17– 20 m; SAM H­ 4972: Hout Bay, near the wreck of British “The Maori”, sunk in 1909, ~ 2.5 nm offshore and north of Hout Bay, west coast near Cape Town, South Africa, 34° 01' 83''S, 18° 18' 27''E, collected by Lynden West, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, California, 30 January, 2003, 28– 29 m; SAM H­ 4973: Vulcan Rock, Hout Bay, South Africa, 34° 03' 98''S, 18° 18' 54''E, collected by Lynden West, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, California, 27 January, 2003, 28– 32 m.
Additional material. BMNH 2002.9.25.1: Cape Point, South Africa, labelled ‘ Latrunculia sp. Kirkpatrick No. 107, in Gilchrist Collection at BMNH’, no other details are available (Clare Valentine personal communication).
Description. Spherical sponge, 4 x 4 x 4 cm (length x width x height) (Fig. 3 A). Surface smooth, velvety, with low cylindrical oscules, 0.1 mm high, 1–4 mm wide, and numerous thick lipped crater­like areolate porefields, 2–6 mm wide, 0.1 mm high, covered with a distinct net­like poral membrane. Texture compressible, leathery. Colour in life pale olive green; in preservative, dark brownish green. This species has been found to contain biologically active pyrroloquilonine alkaloids, discorhabdins A & H and 3­dihydrodiscorhabdins (Hooper et al., 1996; Beukes, 2000; Samaai, 2002; Antunes et al., unpublished data­a) (Table 2).
Source 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Genus Latrunculia du Bocage
L. lunaviridis x x x L. microacanthoxea x x
Genus Strongylodesma Lévi
S. algoaensis x x x x
Genus Tsitsikamma Samaai & Kelly
T. favus x x x x T. pedunculata x
1=Discorhabdin A; 2=Discorhabdin D; 3=Discorhabdin H; 4=3­Dihydrodiscorhabdin C; 5=3­Dihydrodiscorhabdin B; 6=Tsitsikammamine A; 7=14­Bromodiscorhabdin C; 8=Tsitsikammamine A; 9=Tsitsikammamine B
Spicules. Megascleres— Styles: Smooth, straight, centrally thickened, hastate, occasionally polytylote; 357 (336–384) x 12 m. Microscleres— Anisodiscorhabds (Fig. 4B): Manubrium an expanded spinose base, shaft 10 m long, 9 m wide, median whorl 30 m diameter, subsidiary whorl 30 m diameter, more or less perpendicular to the shaft. Apical whorl slants upwards ending in a crown­like tuft of conical spines, parallel to the shaft axis. Whorls are notched along the rim and divided into four segments, each segment possessing a denticulate margin of four spines; 54 (53–60) x 9 (7.2–9.6) m.
Skeleton. The choanosomal skeleton is an irregular polygonal­meshed reticulation formed by wispy tracts of smooth styles with no distinction between the primary and secondary tracts (Fig. 5 B). The tracts range in width from 150–180 m in thickness, and form meshes that are 250 m wide. In the deeper choanosome, tracts are robust and diverge towards the surface where the spicules tend to be vertically arranged and radiate in plumose tracts 280–300 m wide. Numerous anisodiscorhabds and abundant interstitial megascleres are scattered throughout between the tracts. The surface of the ectosome is lined with a palisade of anisodiscorhabds, these are absent from the ectosome of the areolate porefields. Beneath the ectosomal palisade is a dense paratangential layer of megascleres, approximately 300 m deep. This layer is present in the oscular fistules and areolate structures.
Ecology. Found with coral, anemones and other sponges on rock flats, with a fine covering of sand, 17– 20 m.
Etymology. Named for the moon­like (luna­) green (­viridis) appearance of the sponge in life.
Remarks. Latrunculia lunaviridis sp. nov. is distinguished morphologically from L. biformis (Kirkpatrick) in the possession of much broader thick­lipped areolate porefields with a distinct poral membrane, and in the pale olive colouration. In terms of spiculation, megasclere and microsclere dimensions are considerably smaller in L. lunaviridis, and this species lacks the aciculodiscorhabds that characterise L. biformis. The anisodiscorhabds of L. biformis are also characteristically phyllamentous and the ‘disc’ curves upwards. Thus far, L. lunaviridis sp. nov. is known only from the Western Cape region, whereas L. biformis was found in Tsitsikamma National Park in the Eastern Cape region.
Uriz (1988) described a comparatively deep­water population of what was identified as Latrunculia brevis Dendy and Ridley, 1886, off the coast of Namibia, in about 140 m. L. lunaviridis sp. nov. clearly differs from these Namibian sponges, described as dark brown with elevated mammiform areolate pore fields. The primary character that differentiates these species, however, is the form of the anisodiscorhabd in L. lunaviridis sp. nov., which has median and subsidiary whorls separated into four ‘leaves’ with 4 teeth on each margin. In the Namibian sponges the whorls form three ‘leaves’, each with 8 marginal teeth. The microscleres of the Namibian sponges also have two distinctive spines above the manubrium (Uriz 1988).
L. lunaviridis sp. nov. is similar to several recently described New Zealand species (Alvarez et al., 2002). L. kaakaariki, L. wellingtoniensis, L. kaikoura, and L. millerae are all described as green in life, and all are semi­spherical sponges. These sponges differ in the morphology of the inhalent porefields, which in the former two species are expansive regions covering a large surface area of the sponge surface. Moreover, the megascleres are larger, and the microscleres considerably shorter than in L. lunaviridis. New Zealand species L. kaikoura and L. millerae have megascleres of similar dimensions to L. lunaviridis, but again the microscleres are considerably shorter. Of note is thickness of the styles in L. lunaviridis, being almost double the thickness of megascleres in the New Zealand species.
description: Published as part of Samaai, Toufiek, Gibbons, Mark J., Kelly, Michelle & Davies-Coleman, Mike, 2003, South African Latrunculiidae (Porifera: Demospongiae: Poecilosclerida): descriptions of new species of Latrunculia du Bocage, Strongylodesma Lévi, and Tsitsikamma Samaai & Kelly, pp. 1-26 in Zootaxa 371 on pages 10-13, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.156901