Corticium vaceleti Lage & Muricy & Ruiz & Pérez 2018, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Lage, Anaíra
name: Muricy, Guilherme
name: Ruiz, César
name: Pérez, Thierry
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Porifera
Homoscleromorpha
Homosclerophorida
Plakinidae
Corticium
Corticium vaceleti

description: Corticium vaceleti sp. nov.
(FIg. 2, TAbLE 1)
Definition. ENcRUSTINg, cREAM TO bEIgE Corticium WITH SPIcULES EXcLUSIVELy cANdELAbRA, cONcENTRATEd IN THE EcTOSOME ANd cANAL bORdERS. OScULES MEMbRANEOUS, LOcATEd ON A TRANSLUcENT MARgINAL cANAL. EcTOSOMAL cAVITIES AbSENT, bASAL cAVITIES SMALL.
Type Material. HOLOTyPE: MNRJ 18050 (130207 -NC4-04), cOLLEcTEd IN BOURAIL, NEW CALEdONIA (21°41.303’S, 165°27.811’E), IN A NARROW ANd dARk UNdERWATER cAVE (20–25 M dEPTH), dUg INTO THE OUTER SLOPE Of THE cORAL REEf. COLL. THIERRy PÉREZ, FEbRUARy 0 7, 2013. PARATyPE: MNRJ 18051 (130207 -NC4-03), SAME dATA Of HOLOTyPE.
Material examined for comparison: Corticium simplex LENdENfELd, 1907: SyNTyPE BMNH 1908.9. 24.101, DAMPIER ISLANd, NW AUSTRALIA. Corticium bargibanti LÉVI & LÉVI, 1983: HOLOTyPE MNHN. LBIM.D.CL. 2967, NEW CALEdONIA.
Description. THIck ENcRUSTINg SPONgE, WITH IRREgULAR OUTLINE, UP TO 17 cM WIdE by 0.5–0.8 cM THIck. COLOUR in vivo VARIES fROM UNIfORMLy cREAM IN SOME SPEcIMENS TO A gRAdIENT fROM cREAM TO LIgHT bROWN IN OTHERS (FIg. 2A– B). SURfAcE UNEVEN, SMOOTH OR STRIATEd, PERfORATEd by NUMEROUS SMALL INHALANT OPENINgS ALIgNEd OR IRREgULARLy dISPERSEd. BORdERS ROUNdEd, SLIgHTLy ELEVATEd fROM THE SUbSTRATE, SURROUNdEd by A THIN, TRANSLUcENT MARgINAL cANAL. OScULES 1–2 MM IN dIAMETER, cIRcULAR OR ELONgATE, MEMbRANEOUS, LOcATEd AT THE MARgINAL cANAL OR dISPERSEd SPARSELy AT THE SPONgE SURfAcE. CONSISTENcy RELATIVELy fIRM, cARTILAgINOUS.
Anatomy. THE SkELETON IS cOMPOSEd Of cANdELAbRA IN LOW dENSITy, cONcENTRATEd IN THE EcTOSOME, THE bASE ANd AROUNd cANALS ANd RARE TO AbSENT IN THE cHOANOSOME (FIg. 2C–D). EcTOSOMAL LAcUNAE AbSENT; bASAL cAVITIES RELATIVELy SMALL, OVOId IN SEcTION (FIg. 2D). LONg, STRAIgHT AqUIfEROUS cANALS RUN PERPENdIcULAR TO THE SURfAcE.
Spicules (FIg. 2E–F). THE SPIcULES ARE EXcLUSIVELy HETEROLOPHOSE cALTHROPS (cANdELAbRA) WITH bASAL AcTINES SMOOTH OR WITH fEW IRREgULAR SPINES ANd USUALLy RAMIfIEd MEdIO-dISTALLy IN 2–3 cONIcAL RAyS WITH bLUNT OR AcERATE TIPS. THE APIcAL AcTINE RAMIfIES IN 4–7 SPINEd, cONIcAL RAyS WITH AcERATE, bLUNT OR TERMINALLy SPINEd ENdINgS. SPINES ARE LARgE, AcERATE, SOMETIMES WITH bIfURcATEd TIPS, ANd cURVEd TOWARdS THE cENTRE Of THE SPIcULE. THE SPINEd RAyS fORM A cIRcLE THAT MAy cONTAIN A cENTRAL RAy (FIg. 2E, LEfT). IN A fEW SPIcULES, INTERPRETEd HERE AS gROWTH fORMS, THE RAyS Of THE APIcAL AcTINE ARE SMOOTH (FIg. 2F, LEfT). FULL SPIcULE SIZE 21–31–38 µM (TAbLE 1).
Reproduction. CINcTObLASTULA LARVAE 400–475 µM IN dIAMETER ARE AbUNdANT IN THE WHOLE cHOANOSOME Of bOTH SPEcIMENS (FIg. 2D).
Ecology. Corticium vaceleti sp. nov. IS A ScIAPHILIc SPEcIES THAT dWELLS IN dARk cAVITIES, cAVES ANd TUNNELS dUg INTO THE cORAL REEf. A RELATIVELy dENSE POPULATION WAS fOUNd bETWEEN 20 ANd 25 M dEPTH, gROWINg ON ROckS, cLOSE TO THE REcENTLy dEScRIbEd Plakina kanaky RUIZ & PÉREZ IN RUIZ et al., 2015. NO SIgN Of EPIbIOSIS OR PREdATION WERE ObSERVEd.
Distribution. NEW CALEdONIA (FIgS. 1, 3).
Etymology. THE SPEcIES NAME vaceleti IS gIVEN IN HONOUR Of DR. JEAN VAcELET, fOR THE INESTIMAbLE SOURcE Of INSPIRATION HE REPRESENTS ANd fOR HIS IMMENSE cONTRIbUTION TO THE kNOWLEdgE Of SPONgES fROM dARk ANd SHAdEd HAbITATS, ESPEcIALLy SUbMARINE cAVES ANd THE dEEP SEA.
Taxonomic remarks. THE gENUS Corticium cURRENTLy INcLUdES SEVEN VALId SPEcIES (VAN SOEST et al. 2018): C. acanthastrum THOMAS, 1968, C. bargibanti LÉVI & LÉVI, 1983, C. candelabrum, C. diamantense ERESkOVSky et al., 2014; C. niger PULITZER-FINALI, 1996, C. quadripartitum TOPSENT, 1923, ANd C. simplex LENdENfELd, 1907. MOST Of THESE SPEcIES HAVE cALTHROPS ANd/OR LOPHOSE cALTHROPS IN AddITION TO THE TyPIcAL cANdELAbRA Of THE gENUS. THE ONLy EXcEPTIONS ARE THE NEW SPEcIES ANd Corticium simplex, IN WHIcH THE SPIcULES ARE EXcLUSIVELy cANdELAbRA dISTRIbUTEd MOSTLy AT THE SURfAcE ANd THE cANAL bORdERS. Corticium simplex HOWEVER gREATLy dIffERS fROM C. vaceleti sp. nov. by A cOMbINATION Of SIX cHARAcTERS: SHAPE MASSIVE LObATE WITH A SMALL bASE, REd-bROWN EXTERNAL cOLOUR WITH yELLOWISH INTERIOR IN ETHANOL, AbSENcE Of MARgINAL cANAL, PRESENcE Of EcTOSOMAL cAVITIES, PEcULIAR APIcAL cLUSTERS Of OScULES, ANd ESPEcIALLy by THE THIck cARTILAgINOUS TISSUE WITHOUT cHOANOcyTE cHAMbERS AT THE cENTRE Of THE SPONgE bOdy ANd SURROUNdINg THE OScULE cLUSTERS (LENdENfELd 1907). Corticium diamantense fROM THE CARIbbEAN SHARES WITH THE NEW SPEcIES THE ENcRUSTINg SHAPE WITH IRREgULAR OUTLINE, THE UNEVEN SURfAcE PERfORATEd by INHALANT ORIfIcES, ANd THE TRANSLUcENT MARgINAL cANAL AROUNd THE bORdERS, bUT IT cLEARLy dIffERS by THE UNIfORM LIgHT bROWN cOLOUR, AbUNdANcE Of SPIcULES IN THE cHOANOSOME, ANd ESPEcIALLy by THE SMOOTH cALTHROPS ANd TETRALOPHOSE cALTHROPS, AbSENT IN THE NEW SPEcIES. FURTHERMORE, IN C. diamantense THE APIcAL AcTINE Of THE cANdELAbRA IS MIcROSPINEd, WHILE IN THE NEW SPEcIES IT HAS LARgE SPINES THAT ARE cURVEd INWARdS.
Key: bc, basal cavities; in, inhalant canals; la, cinctoblastula larvae; s, surface
THE ONLy SPEcIES Of Corticium PREVIOUSLy REPORTEd fROM NEW CALEdONIA IS C. bargibanti, WHIcH IS EASILy dISTINgUISHAbLE fROM THE NEW SPEcIES by THE PRESENcE Of cALTHROPS WITH LARgE PROXIMAL SPINES (AcANTHOcALTHROPS sensu LÉVI & LÉVI 1983).
description: Published as part of Lage, Anaíra, Muricy, Guilherme, Ruiz, César & Pérez, Thierry, 2018, New sciaphilic plakinids (Porifera, Homoscleromorpha) from the Central-Western Pacific, pp. 8-38 in Zootaxa 4466 (1) on pages 10-12, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4466.1.4, http://zenodo.org/record/1454345