Marine sponges (Porifera) from the Bahía San Antonio (North Patagonian Gulfs, Argentina), with additions to the phylogeography of the widely distributed Cliona aff. celata and Hymeniacidon perlevis, and the description of two new species

ABSTRACT

Six sponge species from Bahía San Antonio (north Argentinean Patagonia) are (re)described, including two new species, namely Halichondria (Halichondria) elenae sp. nov. and Clathria (Microciona) saoensis sp. nov., and three new records for the Argentinean coast. Halichondria (H.) elenae sp. nov. is the only yellowish-greenish SW Atlantic Halichondria with oxeas up to 450 µm. The new species’ 18S rRNA blasted with Halichondria bowerbanki from Ireland, but it is argued that co-specificity is unlikely, in view of their rather distinct morphologies. Clathria (M.) saoensis sp. nov. is the only C. (Microciona) in the SW Atlantic, SE Pacific, and (sub)Antarctic regions with smooth (or nearly so) principal megascleres, mostly below 500 µm long, as well as moderately curved toxas, and isochelae of regular non-cleistochelate shape. Cliona aff. celata and Hymeniacidon perlevis had their identifications confirmed by the sequencing of their 28S and 18S rRNA genes, respectively, and mitochondrial CO1. Both of them clustered with previously sequenced specimens from the Temperate North Atlantic, apart from additional samples from SE Brazil, in the case of C. aff. celata, and China and South Korea, in the case of H. perlevis.

SUBJECT EDITOR:

• Paco Cárdenas

KEYWORDS:

• Amphi-atlantic
• Clathria
• cosmopolitism
• Halichondria
• integrative taxonomy
• intertidal and shallow subtidal
• Pachychalina

Acknowledgements

We want to thank Guillermo Svendsen for help and support during collections; Raúl A.C. Gonzalez for the field trip and boat driving; Manuel Maldonado, Sayumi Hoshino and Caterina Longo, for their help through provision of needed bibliography; Philippe Willenz, Rob van Soest and Jean Vacelet, for supplying translations of some original descriptions; Camila Messias (Museu Nacional) and Raquel Rachid (Nucleus for Structural Biology and Bioimaging – CENABIO, UFRJ), for SEM operation; the Connor Writing Center of the University of New Hampshire, for the thorough language revision of this text, and to the anonymous reviewers that greatly contributed to improve this manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

MG was funded by a CONICET doctoral scholarship. This study was supported by the Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (ANPCyT, Grant PICT CONAE-CONICET N° 04/2010 to MN). EH, GLH and TP were funded by Brazil’s National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq) and Carlos Chagas Filho Research Support Foundation of Rio de Janeiro State (FAPERJ).