Three new Erylus (Demospongiae, Astrophorida, Geodiidae) from the Almirante Saldanha Seamount (off SE Brazil), with further data for a tabular review of worldwide species and comments on Brazilian seamount sponges

Abstract

The seamount biota has gained considerable conservation momentum in the latter years. Nonetheless, very little is known about seamount sponges across the world, and off Brazil in particular. The present study describes three new species of Erylus Gray, 1867 (Demospongiae, Astrophorida, Geodiidae) from bathyal waters in the Almirante Saldanha seamount (Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil). The material described here stemmed from dredging conducted during Programme REVIZEE in 1997 and 2002. Several new species of Erylus have been described recently from the Brazilian coast, and it appears that more will eventually show up. An updated identification key to southwestern Atlantic Erylus is given, as well as a tabular synopsis of micrometric and distribution data for the Erylus of the world. Finally, a checklist of published records of sponges from the Almirante Saldanha seamount is offered, and contrasted to the MNRJ sponge collections for this, as well as additional Brazilian seamounts.

Keywords:

• Deep sea
• endemism
• Erylus
• new species
• Porifera
• REVIZEE
• seamounts

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their sincerest gratitude to Prof. Dr. Helena Lavrado (UFRJ), coordinator of Programme REVIZEE – Central ‘SCORE’ VI, and Prof. Dr. Guilherme Muricy (MN/UFRJ), coordinator for Porifera of Programme REVIZEE – Central ‘SCORE’, for letting us study the material described in this article. Daniela de A. Lopes and Maíra V. de Oliveira are thanked for sorting out the samples studied here from material dredged on board the R/V ‘Astro Garoupa’. Elivaldo de Lima is thanked for SEM operation at the Center for Scanning Electron Microscopy of the Departamento de Invertebrados (Museu Nacional/UFRJ). The establishment of this Center was achieved through a grant from CENPES/PETROBRAS, and is part of the company′s Thematic Network for Marine Environmental Monitoring. WFV is thankful to Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for a PIBIC fellowship. BC thanks CENPES/PETROBRAS for a fellowship which permitted the undertaking of his Master's, and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) for a PhD fellowship. EH thanks CNPq and FAPERJ for several fellowships and grants. Two anonymous reviewers made important suggestions for the improvement of this contribution.

Notes

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark